The U.S. administration has started to prepare an “alternative plan” for a diplomatic solution between Israel and Lebanon in light of the “dead end” that the Israel-Hamas negotiations have reached, Israel’s state-owned Kan TV reported.

Israeli officials meanwhile told U.S. counterparts that “Israel cannot wait any longer to begin a military campaign against Lebanon,” Kan TV said.

A full-blown war between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon could have “catastrophic and unforeseen consequences,” a senior U.S. official has said at the Middle East America Dialogue (MEAD) summit in Washington.

“There is an idea of ‘Let’s go to war and then we will destroy all the missiles Hezbollah has and everything will be fine.’ It’s not that simple. There is no magic solution. The other side cannot be annihilated. At the end of the war, Israel may pay a heavy price and not achieve its goals,” the official was quoted by Israeli journalist Barak Ravid as saying, while recommending a diplomatic rather than military solution to calm the border tensions.

Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi has conducted an assessment of the situation on Lebanon’s border with members of the General Staff Forum, addressing the incident of the Hezbollah drone that hit a tall building in Nahariyya on Monday morning, the Israeli army said.

"Hezbollah's targeting of a residential building this morning is a serious incident, and the same applies to the targeting of residents of the northern region," Halevi said.

U.S. Central Command chief General Michael Kurilla has met in Israel with Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi for a situational assessment, the Israeli army said.

The general's visit focused on “current threats, with an emphasis on threats from Lebanon and Iran in the northern arena,” the army said.

Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa has said that the attention of the five-nation group for Lebanon is now focused on resolving the country’s lengthy presidential crisis.

The latest flurry of Israeli threats regarding an imminent military operation in Lebanon are only aimed at “intimidation,” diplomatic sources said.

“They are also aimed at blocking the latest Iranian-American rapprochement, whose first signs have appeared in the agreement reached in Iraq, which would not have happened without an Iranian green light,” the sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Monday.

Lebanon’s Jamaa Islamiya said Monday that its military wing fired a volley of rockets at Israel’s Beit Hillel military post in the Kiryat Shmona settlement, resuming military action from Lebanon against Israel after several months of apparent suspension.

The group said its attack came after Israel escalated “its aggression against our people and villages in the South and in support of our people in Gaza and Palestine as part of the national and humanitarian duties.”

Hezbollah said Monday that it targeted Israel’s Ma'ayan Baruch military post near Lebanon’s border with the “appropriate weapons,” managing to achieve a “direct hit.”

The Israeli army meanwhile announced that four drones infiltrated Israel’s Western Galilee area of which three were intercepted and a fourth hit a tall building in Nahariyya. Israel’s Channel 12 said security officials estimate that the fourth drone had been targeted at military bases south of Nahariyya.

A Lebanese judge Monday issued an arrest warrant for ex-central bank chief Riad Salameh, a judicial official said, after the embattled former governor was questioned in an embezzlement case.

Salameh, 74, who led the central bank for three decades, faces numerous charges including embezzlement, money laundering and tax evasion in separate probes in crisis-hit Lebanon and abroad.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant commented the situation on the Lebanese border Sunday during a tour of the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza, telling troops "we are preparing for anything that may happen in the north."

"The shift of the center of gravity can happen quickly and can also involve you in a short period of time," Gallant said, according to a statement issued by his office.