Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday said Israel will not join a trilateral framework proposed by France to defuse tensions with Lebanon, accusing Paris of “hostile policies against Israel.”

“While the State of Israel is fighting the most just war in its history, France has shown hostility and enmity against us, while blatantly ignoring the atrocities committed by Hamas’ terrorists against children and women -- just because they are Jews,” Gallant said in a post on the X platform.

Washington communicated with caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Speaker Nabih Berri in the wake of Israel’s assassination of senior Hezbollah military commander Taleb Abdallah, a Western diplomatic source said.

The U.S. “stressed the need for restraint, advising that Hezbollah should not be dragged into a miscalculation in its response to the assassination,” the source added, in remarks to the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that he is “not carrying out an initiative, but rather an effort to finalize the presidential juncture.”

“We agree with Speaker Nabih Berri that the priority is for consensus over a president prior to the election, which would give a success chance to the new presidential tenure, contrary to the approach of confrontation,” Bassil said at a press conference that he held to announce the outcome of his meetings.

Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin is visiting Lebanon next week, after he met at the Vatican last week with French Presidential Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Parolin and Le Drian discussed the situation in Lebanon, the presidential crisis, and the results of the Quintet's efforts, media reports said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday condemned “the continuation of the Israeli attacks on the south and the deliberate killing of its people.”

During a Cabinet session, Mikati also decried “the destruction of towns and the burning of crops,” calling on the international community to “put an end to the destructive and terrorist aggression.”

Hezbollah attacked Friday Kiryat Shmona and Kfar Szold with dozens of rockets, in response to an overnight strike that killed 2 women and injured several civilians in south Lebanon.

Sirens sounded on Friday morning in northern Israel, and police said munitions had fallen in the Kiryat Shmona area, with no immediate sign of victims.

Two civilians were killed and at least seven others injured in an Israeli nighttime strike on southern Lebanon, the country's national news agency reported on Friday.

Enemy warplanes launched a raid targeting a three-story house in the town of Janata in the Tyre district, killing a woman, Sally Skaiki, and injuring seven other civilians, the agency said.

Israel vowed to respond forcefully to all Hezbollah attacks after the group fired a barrage of rockets and drones across the border for the second successive day on Thursday.

"Israel will respond with force to all aggressions by Hezbollah," Israeli government spokesman David Mencer said during a press briefing, adding that "whether through diplomatic efforts or otherwise, Israel will restore security on our northern border."

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday wrapped up his presidential consultative tour by meeting with the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammad Raad.

An FPM statement said the two men “discussed the stances of the parties on the call for consultations on the basis of agreeing on a presidential candidate or going to a presidential election.”

Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein on Thursday warned against any major Israeli attack on south Lebanon.

“I discussed with my Iranian counterpart the dangerous signals about the possibility of an attack on south Lebanon and the expansion of the war’s geography,” Hussein said after meeting acting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani.