Israel shelled Monday the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border towns of Fardis, Rashaya al-Fokhar, Aitaroun, Yarine, Merwahine, al-Jebbayn, Shihine and al-Naqoura.

Hezbollah, for its part, targeted a group of soldiers in al-Semmaqa in the occupied Shebaa Farms. The attack was a direct hit and inflicted casualties, Hezbollah said.

Public institutions were closed Monday in Lebanon amid a general strike in solidarity with Gaza and south Lebanon.

Banks including the central bank, public and private schools, universities, and archaeological sites were also closed.

Israel's army chief Herzi Halevi has visited his forces near the northern border with Lebanon, where he spoke of the need "to kill Hezbollah operatives, to demonstrate our superiority".

"It can also come in the form of a strike and war," he said Sunday.

Israeli strikes overnight near Damascus killed two Hezbollah fighters and two Syrians working with the Lebanese group, a war monitor said Monday.

"Two Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and two Syrian guards" working at one of the Iran-backed movement's sites were killed, while three other fighters and three civilians were wounded, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Several Israeli soldiers were wounded when Hezbollah launched a drone attack from Lebanon on Sunday, both the Israeli army and the militant group said.

There have been repeated exchanges of fire across the border since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza in October, raising fears of a wider conflict.

Israeli warplanes on Sunday violently bombed the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border towns of Yaroun and Maroun al-Ras as artillery shelling targeted the peripheries of at least eight Lebanese border towns.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday reiterated his solidarity with the residents of the clashes-hit Lebanese south.

Referring to a recent visit to the South, al-Rahi said: “We told residents that our solidarity with them includes all their needs and the first outcry that we voice with them is: we don’t want a war that would destroy our homes, kill our children and displace us.”

A United Nations peacekeeping position in southern Lebanon was hit on Saturday without causing casualties, the U.N. force said, adding it was seeking to verify the source of the fire.

Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA) reported that an Israeli Merkava tank targeted the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) position near the border across from Metula in northern Israel.

Israel on Saturday shelled the outskirts of the southern Lebanese border towns of Naqoura, Kfarshouba, al-Wazzani, Blida, Mhaybib, al-Dhayra, Alma al-Shaab and Tayr Harfa amid reports of Hezbollah attacks on Israel's Misgav Am and a surveillance pole near al-Wazzani.

The Israeli army said Saturday that it had fired overnight "toward the source of" unspecified launches from Lebanon towards Israeli territory.

In the seaside settlement of Nahariya, the shock still lingers on Daniel Bussidan's face. A recent rocket attack killed his friend's father, and now this Israeli beach town, the closest to Lebanon, stands on edge.

"I'm scared from the attack," said the 26-year-old who works in his father's pastry shop on the Mediterranean resort's eucalyptus-lined main street.