The United States urged Israel to refrain from launching Gaza-style military action in Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country could face similar "destruction."
Israel's military chief, Herzi Halevi, vowed to keep bombing Hezbollah targets, a campaign that has killed more than 1,200 people since Sept. 23, "without allowing them any respite or recovery."
The comments came after a phone call between Netanyahu and U.S. President Joe Biden, their first in seven weeks. The White House said Biden told Netanyahu to "minimize harm" to civilians in Lebanon, particularly in "densely populated areas of Beirut."
"There should be no kind of military action in Lebanon that looks anything like Gaza and leaves a result anything like Gaza," said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.
Netanyahu said in a video address to the people of Lebanon on Tuesday: "You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza."
He added: "Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end."
'Deadly, precise' retaliation
Biden and Netanyahu's call had been expected to focus on Israel's response to last week's missile barrage by Iran.
Iran fired about 200 missiles at Israel in what it said was retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. Most were intercepted by Israel or its allies.
Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: "Our attack on Iran will be deadly, precise and surprising. They will not understand what happened and how it happened."
Biden has cautioned Israel against attempting to target Iran's nuclear facilities, which would risk major retaliation, and opposes striking oil installations.
A Lebanese government source told AFP that Hezbollah had accepted a cease-fire with Israel on Sept. 27, the day Israel killed Nasrallah.
But they said Israel's response had torpedoed the plan, backed by Washington and its allies, and the Lebanese government had "had no contact with Hezbollah" since his death.
Tit-for-tat strikes
Hezbollah said its members were locked in clashes with Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, using rocket-propelled weapons to repel attempts to breach the border.
Two people were killed by suspected Hezbollah rocket fire in the northern Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona while Israel intercepted two projectiles fired towards the coastal town of Caesarea, officials said.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said at least four people were killed in an Israeli strike on a village southeast of Beirut, an area so far largely spared from Israeli bombing.
Lebanon's state civil defense body said an Israeli strike killed five of its personnel in the southern village of Derdghaiya.
Israel has intensified airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since Sept. 23, uprooting more than a million people, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Its ground forces crossed into Lebanon on Sept. 30 in response to Hezbollah rocket and artillery attacks over the past year that have forced tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes.
Israel's military said Wednesday its troops were involved in close-quarter encounters and aerial strikes over the previous 24 hours, adding 100 Hezbollah targets were destroyed.
Israeli operations have expanded from border areas in the interior to the southern section of Lebanon's Mediterranean coast.
According to a toll from the Israeli army on Wednesday, 13 of its soldiers have died since ground operations inside Lebanon began.