The Israeli military said on Thursday it hit around 75 "Hezbollah targets" in Lebanon during the night, including ammunition depots of the Lebanese armed group.

"Overnight, the IDF (Israeli military)... struck approximately 75 terror targets" belonging to Hezbollah "in the area of Bekaa and in southern Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities, ready-to-fire launchers" as well as militants and other infrastructure, the military said in a statement.

The U.S., France and other allies jointly called Wednesday for an immediate 21-day cease-fire to allow for negotiations in the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.

The joint statement, negotiated on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, says the recent fighting is "intolerable and presents an unacceptable risk of a broader regional escalation."

Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Thursday rejected a proposal for a 21-day ceasefire in Lebanon and called for the "crushing" of the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

"The campaign in the north should end with a single result: crushing Hezbollah and elimination of its ability to harm the residents of the north," Smotrich said on social media platform X, adding that the ceasefire proposed by the U.S. and its allies would give Hezbollah time to "reorganize".

U.S. President Joe Biden warned Wednesday of the possibility of an "all-out war" in the Middle East as Israel put troops on alert for possible entry into Lebanon and the war in Gaza grinds on.

"An all-out war is possible," Biden told ABC chat show "The View." "What I think is, also, the opportunity is still in play to have a settlement that could fundamentally change the whole region."

The Biden administration is working on a new diplomatic initiative for a "pause" in the fighting in Lebanon and a resumption of negotiations on a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, two U.S. officials, one Israeli official and two sources with direct knowledge told U.S. news portal Axios.

Human Rights Watch said Israel’s ongoing aerial bombardment in Lebanon has put civilians “across the country at grave risk,” and called for a United Nations investigation into strikes in Lebanon and rocket fire by Hezbollah militants into northern Israel.

The global rights group documented over a thousand Israeli strikes across Lebanon since the Israeli military announced a new phase in its conflict with Hezbollah, which has launched over 200 rockets into northern Israeli towns.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is urging both Israel and Hezbollah to step back from their intensifying conflict, saying that an all-out war would be disastrous for the region and its people.

In New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly, Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. was working on a plan to de-escalate tensions and allow tens of thousands of Israelis and Lebanese to return to homes they have had to evacuate in border areas.

The Israeli army chief said Wednesday that the military is preparing for a possible ground operation in Lebanon as Hezbollah hurled dozens of projectiles into Israel, including a missile aimed at Tel Aviv that was the militant group's deepest strike yet.

Addressing troops on the northern border, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the latest Israeli airstrikes were designed to "prepare the ground for your possible entry and to continue degrading Hezbollah."

The United Nations said Wednesday that some 90,000 people had been displaced in Lebanon this week, as Israel pounds what it says are Hezbollah targets across the country and the Lebanese group strikes back.

Since Monday, the U.N.'s International Organization for Migration has recorded "90,530 newly displaced persons", a statement said.

Israel’s Northern Command chief General Ori Gordin inspected an army exercise on Lebanon’s border on Tuesday and said troops there “must prepare very strongly to move to a ground maneuver.”