In rugged terrain along the Syrian-Lebanese border, yellow bulldozers raised earthen berms in front of armored vehicles while soldiers combed through tunnels they said were used by Hezbollah, as Syria reinforces its side of the border.

Syria is seeking to stay out of the regional war, whose flames have reached neighboring Lebanon, where Hezbollah is fighting a fierce conflict with Israel.

President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam are determined to continue their contacts, hoping that will lead to international intervention to halt the fighting in south Lebanon, ministerial sources said.

Whenever war rocks northern Israel, residents of Kiryat Shmona live their lives to the rhythm of rocket sirens. Young people have left the city, and those who remain feel neglected by the government.

Some mere three kilometers from Lebanon, this northern settlement is living through its second war in less than three years, not counting Israel's 12-day war with Iran last June, or the war with Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli army targeted Wednesday several towns and villages in south Lebanon including Houmin al-Tahta, al-Mansouri, Khiam, Harees, Kawnin, Beit Yahoun, Haddatha, al-Tiri, Hanine, al-Qawzah, Beit Leef, al-Ghandourieh, Kafra, al-Qlayleh, al-Henniyyeh, Maaroub, Dweir, Marjaoun, Maroun al-Ras, Marwanieh, and Ramadieh.

At least six people were killed in the strikes, four of them from the same family in Houmin.

UNESCO convened Wednesday an extraordinary meeting to strengthen the protection of cultural heritage in Lebanon, following the country’s request.

The meeting - an extraordinary session of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict – led to granting provisional enhanced protection to 39 cultural properties as well as the provision of an international financial assistance, totaling over 100,000 USD for emergency operations on the ground.

Iran’s supreme leader vowed Wednesday his nation will continue to support anti-Israeli forces in the Mideast.

The message from Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, like others since he was named Iran’s new supreme leader, came in a statement read on air by a state television anchor.

Paris, through its diplomatic channels and its Minister of Defense, has conveyed very serious warnings to Beirut about the deteriorating situation on the ground and its tendency towards further escalation, sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

An Israeli strike in the Jnah area of Beirut early on Wednesday killed Hezbollah's top commander for Iraq military affairs, Youssef Hashem, a Lebanese security source and a Hezbollah source both told AFP.

The security source said "a senior Hezbollah official, who is the military chief for the Iraq file, named Youssef Hashem, was killed in the strike on the Jnah area in Beirut," adding that "he was in a meeting inside a tent near several vehicles".

The Foreign Ministers of Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom, and the High Representative of the European Union, expressed Wednesday their full support to the Government and people of Lebanon, "who are once again suffering the dramatic consequences of a war that is not theirs."

"We express our condolences to the family of the victims and our solidarity to the civilian population impacted by this war both in Lebanon and Israel," the Delegation of the European Union to Lebanon said in a statement, condemning Hezbollah for attacks in support of Iran against Israel. The attacks "must cease immediately," the statement said. "The priority is to avoid a further escalation of the regional conflict with Iran."

Speaker Nabih Berri has revealed to his visitors that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had informed him, one day before the Lebanese Foreign Ministry’s decision to expel Iran's ambassador, that Tehran insists any agreement to end the war must also include Lebanon, affirming that “what applies to Tehran applies to Beirut.”