Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Saturday stressed that “the south is the heart of Lebanon and is going through the severest and most difficult suffering.”

In his Easter message, al-Rahi saluted “the southerners who are resilient in their towns and villages under the bombardment” and “all those who lost dear ones, whose homes were destroyed or who were displaced to other regions.”

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has stressed that the anti-Israel resistance movements in Lebanon and the region are not in “a position of weakness” in the ongoing conflict.

“What we are seeking is victory and not to end the matter in any way. Had we wanted that, we would not have treaded this path,” Nasrallah said in a Ramadan televised speech focusing on religious matters.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant toured the Israeli army's northern command on Friday "to closely examine another successful termination like the one that was executed this morning," he said in a post referring to Israel's drone assassination of a Hezbollah rocket unit commander earlier on Friday.

Gallant said the Israeli army would keep up its operations against Hezbollah, and its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was to blame for the consequences, including members killed and wounded.

Israel launched deadly cross-border strikes Friday on Hezbollah targets in Syria and Lebanon, doubling down on Iran-backed foes and Hamas allies, and fuelling concerns the violence could spark a major regional conflagration.

The Israeli army said it killed the deputy head of Hezbollah's rocket unit, Ali Naim, in one of the attacks on southern Lebanon.

An Israeli strike killed the deputy head of Hezbollah's rocket unit in south Lebanon on Friday, the Israeli military said, the latest deadly cross-border violence since the Israel-Hamas war erupted.

Hezbollah, which has a powerful arsenal of rockets and missiles, has exchanged near-daily fire with the Israeli army since its ally, Palestinian militant group Hamas, carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, triggering war in Gaza.

An Israeli drone strike Friday on a car in the Tyre district town of Bazouriyeh killed a “prominent” Hezbollah military commander, Israeli media reports said.

Hezbollah meanwhile announced the death of three more of its fighters in the conflict, without mentioning where they were killed. It identified them as Ahmad Jawad Chehimi, 60, who hailed from the southern town of Markaba, Mustafa Ahmad Makki, 41, who hailed from the southern town of Tebnin, and Ibrahim Anis al-Zein, 42, who hailed from the southern town of Chhour.

The nun stood in front of a group of young students at a Lebanese Christian school and asked them to pray for the "men of the resistance" in southern Lebanon who she said were defending the country.

The men to whom nun Maya Ziadeh was referring are members of the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which has been clashing with Israel across a volatile border for nearly six months, becoming a critical regional player as the Israel-Hamas war persists in Gaza.

The White House has called on Israel and Lebanon to put a high priority on restoring calm after new deadly border crossfire and Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah.

"Restoring calm along that border remains a top priority for President Biden and for the administration and it has to be of utmost importance, we believe, as well for both Lebanon and Israel," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters.

Hezbollah fired rockets with heavy warheads at towns in northern Israel, saying it used the weapons against civilian targets for the first time Thursday in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes the night before that killed nine, including what the group said were several paramedics.

There were no reports of Israelis hurt in the rocket attack, local media said. The Israeli military did not immediately offer comment on the rocket attack.

The U.N. peacekeeping force deployed in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel has calling for ending the escalation a day after exchanges of fire killed 17 people.

The force known as UNIFIL said it is very concerned over the surge of cross-border violence between the Israeli military and Lebanon-based militant groups including Hezbollah.