Israeli firefighters Thursday were battling back blazes ignited by rockets from Lebanon, fire officials said.

Five trucks of firefighters spent the afternoon putting out a fire in the Upper Galilee, near Kibbutz Shamir, Israeli fire spokesperson Isaac Ben-David told The Associated Press.

France’s top diplomat Thursday met with top Lebanese officials in Beirut, as the region anticipates a retaliatory attack on Israel from Iran and Hezbollah and as negotiations for a cease-fire in the war-torn Gaza Strip recommenced in Qatar.

“We are all concerned about the regional situation. Our message is simple which is de-escalation,” said French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné following a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein's visit to Lebanon on Wednesday has created "positivities that can be capitalized on."

Lebanon's health ministry said Israeli strikes killed two people in the country's south on Wednesday, with Hezbollah announcing the deaths of two of its fighters, the latest cross-border violence amid fears of a full-blown regional war.

Hezbollah has traded near daily fire with the Israeli army since the Palestinian militant group Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

Seventeen people were wounded, four of them critically, when an Israeli airstrike targeted the intersection of the southern town of al-Abbasiyeh near Tyre on Wednesday, the Health Ministry said.

Another strike meanwhile targeted a house in the southern border town of Rab Tlatine.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Wednesday stressed to visiting U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein “the need to press Israel to halt its attacks and threats,” noting that “the gateway for the solution is a ceasefire in Gaza and the implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, especially Resolution 1701.”

Air France and its Transavia subsidiary expect to resume service to Beirut Thursday, which has been suspended since July 29 because of tensions in the Middle East, the French carrier said Wednesday.

"At this stage, and subject to the evolution of the security situation at destination, the airline plans to resume its flights between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Beirut on Thursday, August 15, 2024," Air France said in a communique.

Visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein warned Wednesday that the clock was ticking for a Gaza ceasefire that would also end 10 months of cross-border exchanges between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israel.

Hochstein told a Beirut news conference that he and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally, discussed "the framework agreement that's on the table for a Gaza ceasefire, and he and I agreed there is no more time to waste and there's no more valid excuses from any party for any further delay."

Lebanese authorities have evacuated prisoners from police stations in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon to other parts of the country out of concerns about possible war with Israel, judicial and security officials said.

The officials say about 220 prisoners were moved. It comes amid concerns that the ongoing exchange of cross-border fire between Israeli troops and members of the Lebanon-based militant Hezbollah group might expand after Israel killed a top Hezbollah official last month. Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate.

A Hezbollah lawmaker on Tuesday said that his group’s objective from the Lebanon front against Israel is to “press the enemy to halt the aggression against Gaza.”