Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon in seven months of cross-border hostilities with Hezbollah has caused more than $1.5 billion in damage, a Lebanese official said.

Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement began attacking Israel in support of ally Hamas a day after the Palestinian militant group's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel that sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

A Lebanese security source said five people including two Hezbollah fighters were killed Wednesday in Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, with a Palestinian armed group reporting three fatalities among its ranks.

Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have stepped up cross-border exchanges that have been ongoing following the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as warned that a war with Hezbollah would have “a heavy cost for Israel and a catastrophic one for Hezbollah and Lebanon.”

As he toured Israel’s northern border on Wednesday, Gallant said that while Israel was open to a diplomatic solution on the northern border, the army was also preparing for a possible military operation to allow citizens to return to their homes.

A Lebanese security source said four Hezbollah members were killed Thursday in an Israeli strike on a vehicle in the country's south, the latest such raid in months of cross-border hostilities.

Hezbollah for its part targeted newly installed electronic systems in the Ramia post as it announced the deaths of three of its members.

Hezbollah has declared general mobilization to be prepared should Israel decide to expand the war on Lebanon, after the Israeli army seized control of the Rafah border crossing in Gaza, Shiite Duo sources have said.

“International sides have not ruled out that Israel might expand the war as a preventative step, in order to prevent Hezbollah from repeating what Hamas did with its invasion of the Israeli settlements in the Gaza envelope area,” the sources told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has delivered Lebanon’s response to the French paper related to resolving the border conflict between Lebanon and Israel, Berri’s aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil has said.

Khalil said the response has been handed to the French embassy in Beirut.

Hezbollah attacked Wednesday northern Israel with missiles and explosive-laden drones.

Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged regular cross-border fire since Palestinian militant group Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel sparked war in the Gaza Strip.

Poland has dismantled an alleged migrant trafficking network at the Polish-Belarusian border which was suspected of providing millions of dollars in financing to armed groups like Hezbollah, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Thirty-six Polish, Ukrainian, Iraqi and Belarusian members of the alleged network have so far been charged, they added.

Hezbollah attacked Tuesday northern Israel with suicide drones.

The group said its drones targeted soldiers in the Yiftah barracks, inflicting casualties, while other drones hit an Iron Dome platform in the Ramot Naftali barracks, damaging it.

Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri on Tuesday marked the anniversary of the May 7, 2008 clashes with a post on the X platform.

“Beirut and its resilient and patient people will remain defiant in the face of every tyrant,” Hariri said.