Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday stressed that “in the face of the systematic and dangerous Israeli escalation,” Lebanon “can only stress its right to defend its land, sovereignty and dignity with all means available.”

“We have informed brotherly and friendly countries that we are advocates of peace not war, because we are seeking sustainable stability through regaining the occupied parts of our dear south and compelling the Israeli enemy to implement U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 with all its stipulations,” Mikati said, during a visit to the Army Command on the occasion of Army Day.

Hezbollah targeted Friday Israeli soldiers in the Dhaira post with artillery shells and a post in the occupied Kfarshouba Hills, as it resumed its operations against Israel, three days after Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander.

Israeli drones meanwhile raided the southern towns of Rab Tlatine and Dhaira.

Free Patriotic movement chief Jebran Bassil said the FPM cannot stand idly by as Israel strikes Beirut and kills children.

Bassil's comment, late Thursday, came two days after an Israeli air strike killed a Hezbollah top commander in Haret Hreik. The raid on the Beirut suburb, an overcrowded residential area, killed siblings Amira and Hassan Fadlallah as well as three women and injured dozens of civilians.

Hezbollah fired overnight anti-aircraft missiles on Israeli warplanes in south Lebanon, forcing them to retreat beyond the border.

The group had launched rockets at northern Israel Thursday "in response" to a deadly Israeli strike in south Lebanon -- the group's first attack after Israel killed a top commander earlier this week.

A Syrian family of four were killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on their house in the southern village of Shamaa in the Tyre district.

A mother and her three children were killed as Israeli warplanes targeted their house, local media reports said. Several others were injured in the strike.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel was prepared for any "aggression" against it following threats of retaliation for the killings of top Hamas and Hezbollah figures.

"Israel is at a very high level of preparation for any scenario, both defensive and offensive. We will make any act of aggression against us pay a very high price... Those who attack us, we will attack in return," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Iran and armed groups backed by it are preparing coordinated action meant to deter Israel but avert all-out war, sources and analysts said, after the killings of top Hamas and Hezbollah figures.

On Wednesday, Iranian officials met in Tehran with representatives of the so-called "axis of resistance" -- a loose alliance of Tehran-backed groups hostile to Israel -- to discuss retaliation for the deaths of Hamas's leader and Hezbollah's top military commander, said a source close to Lebanese group.

The Iran-aligned "axis of resistance" against Israel and its allies have lost two major figures in less than 24 hours in attacks either blamed on or claimed by Israel.

Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh was killed on Wednesday in Tehran in a strike the group blamed on Israel, hours after top Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur perished in an Israeli strike on southern Beirut.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday that the group was bound to respond to Israel's killing of its top military commander Fouad Shukur, saying his death and that of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh "crossed" red lines.

"You do not know what red lines you crossed," he said, addressing Israel during a speech broadcast at Shukur's funeral.

The U.S. has deployed at least 12 warships to the Middle East, including the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, amphibious assault teams and over 4,000 Marines and sailors, in response to escalating tensions in the region following the assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shukur, the Washington Post reported on Thursday, citing a Pentagon official.