Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated numerous warnings he had made against Hezbollah before the recent ceasefire with Hamas, telling the Lebanese Iran-backed group that Lebanon will be destroyed if it opens up a major war against Israel.

“We are acting in the north all the time against all efforts by Hezbollah to operate against us. We are eliminating terror cells, pushing them away from the border, destroying munitions. We will continue with strong deterrence in the north, and total victory in the south,” Netanyahu said.

A new round of clashes erupted Saturday morning between the Israeli army and Hezbollah in the Lebanese-Israel border region.

Hezbollah said two of its members were among three people killed in Israeli strikes on Lebanon Friday, as its militants resumed attacks against Israel following the end of a Gaza truce.

Israeli air strikes killed two Syrian pro-Hezbollah fighters when they hit sites belonging to the Iran-backed group near Damascus early on Saturday, a war monitor told AFP.

The strikes near Damascus came less than 24 hours after the end of a Gaza truce between Hezbollah ally Hamas and Israel.

Border skirmishes resumed Friday after a weeklong truce in Gaza brought a temporary halt to the daily exchanges of rockets, artillery shelling and airstrikes between Hezbollah and Israel in south Lebanon.

While Lebanon and Hezbollah weren't officially parties to the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, a cautious calm prevailed over the border area in south Lebanon during Gaza's weeklong truce.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has warned against “miscalculation” and “escalation” on the Lebanese-Israeli border, as the war resumed in full force between Israel and Hamas in Gaza following a seven-day truce.

French Special Presidential Envoy for Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian has called on Lebanon to “implement” U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 by “ending the presence of armed appearances within a 30-kilometer-deep area so that it serves as a buffer zone,” a media report said on Friday.

Lebanon's army said it disrupted a smuggling operation on Friday that saw more than 100 migrants from neighbouring Syria attempting to leave the country by sea.

Naval forces thwarted "a people-smuggling operation on a boat carrying 110 people", two of them Lebanese and the rest Syrian nationals, an army statement said.

As cabinet failed to convene to resolve a looming crisis in the army chief command, caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim met Friday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi to discuss the steps that must be taken to avoid vacancy after army chief General Joseph Aoun's planned retirement in January.

Slim, who is loyal to the Free Patriotic Movement, unsurprisingly said after the meeting that extending Aoun's term does not fall under his jurisdiction.

The choice of extending the army chief’s term is advancing amid U.S., Qatari and French pressure in this regard and support from Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, parliamentary sources said.

“The extension will be passed through a parliamentary law raising the retirement age of officers of the ranks of general and major general, because postponing the retirement of the army chief (by the government) would require the defense minister’s signature, and any bypassing of him would subject Cabinet’s decision to an appeal before the State Shoura Council,” the sources added, in remarks to a-Binaa newspaper published Friday.