Israel carried out several airstrikes on southern Lebanese border towns on Sunday, as Hezbollah announced a fresh attack on Israeli posts.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar televisions said an Israeli warplane fired three missiles at a house in Rab Tlatine as an Israeli drone bombed a school in al-Taybeh.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday condemned “the genocidal and brutal war that is ongoing in Gaza,” while rejecting “its spread to the southern villages” in Lebanon.

“Lebanon is not a land of war but rather a land of dialogue and peace,” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Christians in the border villages of south Lebanon prepared for a subdued Christmas under the shadow of the ongoing war in Gaza and its spillover in Lebanon.

While in Beirut restaurants were packed and hundreds flocked to Christmas markets in the days leading up to the holiday, in the border towns houses were empty and businesses shuttered. The residents have fled to stay with relatives or in rented apartments in Beirut or other areas farther from the conflict.

The head of Hezbollah’s executive council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, has stressed that his party is “not the resistance that awaits the Americans and Israelis to decide its fate.”

“We are the ones who decide the fate of the South, the border and the future of this country at the level of confronting the enemy, whom we will not allow to attack Gaza undeterred,” Safieddine said.

Israeli artillery shelling targeted several Lebanese border areas on Saturday, as an Israeli airstrike wounded a cameraman from Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television.

State-run National News Agency said artillery shelling hit the Ain al-Zarqa area between the border towns of Tayr Harfa and Alma al-Shaab. Violent artillery shelling also targeted the outskirts of the border town of Deir Mimas and the Khardali Valley area.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and urged him to “avoid escalation in Lebanon,” amid continuing cross-border clashes between Israel and Hezbollah, the U.S. State Department said.

“Secretary Blinken stressed the importance of measures to prevent the conflict from expanding, including affirmative steps to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and to avoid escalation in Lebanon,” the State Dept. said.

In the Lebanese border village of Qlayaa, the priest urged his parish to keep the Christmas spirit alive despite clashes between Hezbollah and Israel forcing many to flee.

Nestled among lush, green fields and flowing olive groves, Qlayaa has echoed to the sound of bombing on an almost daily basis since October 7.

Israel's military says rocket fire from Lebanon has killed one of its soldiers and wounded another near the border, where violence has flared during the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The soldiers were hit during "operational activity" in the Shtula area in northern Israel, the army said in a statement.

Lebanon has been warned that the Israeli Mossad intends to assassinate Palestinian officials in Lebanon, topped by Hamas senior leaders Saleh al-Arouri and Osama Hamdan and Islamic Jihad chief Ziad al-Nakhalah, diplomatic sources said.

“The threats are high and require extraordinary measures,” the sources told ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Friday, saying that French intelligence chief Bernard Emie had warned -- without mentioning names -- of such a scenario during his latest visit to Beirut.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi agreed, during a meeting in Bkerki, that resolving the Lebanese crises starts with the election of a president.

Lebanon has been without a president since Michel Aoun's term ended in October last year, while its government has been running in a limited caretaker capacity. The head of the General Security agency retired in March without a replacement, and the central bank governor's mandate expired in July, without a clear successor.