Israel's representative to the U.N. Security Council, Gilad Erdan, has said that Israel has "no desire to remain in Lebanon and the forces capable of doing so are the Lebanese Army and UNIFIL.”

An Israeli freelance journalist who was arrested in Lebanon in recent days after entering the country with a foreign passport has been freed and deported to the United States, Israeli media reports said on Thursday.

Joshua Tartakovsky, a 42-year-old Israeli citizen born in the United States, had reportedly entered Lebanon on a British passport with a group of other journalists some time over the past two weeks.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati revealed Thursday that "diplomatic contacts intensified over the past hours, ahead of the U.N. Security Council session, with the aim of seeking a ceasefire again and thus exerting more pressure to stop the Israeli aggression on Lebanon."

"There are contacts taking place between the United States and France, which had requested the Security Council meeting, with the aim of reviving the ceasefire declaration for a specific period of time in order to resume the search for political solutions," Mikati told his visitors.

Israel's military chief Herzi Halevi has vowed to keep targeting Hezbollah, saying strikes would continue "without respite" to prevent the group from recovering.

"We will continue to strike Hezbollah with intensity, without allowing them any respite or recovery," Halevi said in a statement.

An Israeli strike hit a road linking Syria and Lebanon Thursday as Israel tries to cut off supply routes of Hezbollah, a war monitor said.

Israel has increased it strikes on Syria since it upped its air raids on what it says are targets of Hezbollah in Lebanon more than two weeks ago, notably killing the leader of the Lebanese group.

Israel’s ground invasion in Lebanon stretched into its second week, as Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets deep into Israel — with no end in sight to the escalating conflict.

More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon -- mostly in airstrikes -- and over a million displaced since the fighting intensified in mid-September. At least 15 Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed since the ground operation began, and more than 60,000 people have been displaced from towns along the border for more than a year.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered government agencies to prepare to evacuate Filipinos “by whatever means” from Lebanon.

Marcos held a virtual meeting with key Cabinet members while attending a summit of Southeast Asia leaders in Laos, underscoring the urgency as Israel intensified attacks against Lebanon.

The top U.N. official in Lebanon has repeated her call for an immediate ceasefire, saying the 21-day cease-fire proposal launched by the U.S. and France is still on the table “and very relevant.”

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said that a halt to fighting is the only way to ease “the colossal human suffering that is happening right now,” address Lebanon’s “humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions” and provide a window “for diplomatic efforts to take hold and succeed.”

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday emphasized "the need for a diplomatic arrangement to safely return both Lebanese and Israeli civilians to their homes on both sides of the Blue Line," during a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said.

"The President affirmed Israel’s right to protect its citizens from Hezbollah, which has fired thousands of missiles and rockets into Israel over the past year alone, while emphasizing the need to minimize harm to civilians, in particular in the densely populated areas of Beirut," the White House added.

Lebanon's state civil defense body said an Israeli strike on Wednesday killed five of its personnel in the country's south, with the health ministry condemning the latest deadly strike on rescue workers.