U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah must not condemn Lebanon to the same fate as Gaza, the Palestinian territory decimated by years of conflict.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Wednesday that negotiating with Israel under fire would amount to "surrender" for Lebanon, and urged the government to reverse its ban on the party's military activities.

"When negotiations with the Israeli enemy are proposed under fire, this is an imposition of surrender," Qassem said, rejecting the Lebanese president's initiative to start direct negotiations "with an enemy that occupies our land and carries out daily attacks".

Iran and Israel traded fresh missile and drone strikes Wednesday, with countries across the Middle East coming under fire as diplomats worked in the background to end the nearly four-week war.

Here are the latest developments in the Middle East war:

Iran fired cruise missiles at the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, the military said in a statement carried by state television, warning of further launches when the strike group's ships come in range.

Israel launched strikes on south Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs on Wednesday, as Hezbollah said it kept up attacks on Israeli troops.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Iran gave him a "very big present" related to the Strait of Hormuz, boosting his confidence that he was talking to the right people in Tehran to end the war.

The Israeli military said on Tuesday that it was operating "according to an unchanged plan" in Iran and Lebanon, regardless of any talks aimed at reaching an agreement to end the hostilities.

Israeli emergency services said a woman was killed in the north of the country on Tuesday following rocket fire from Lebanon, where Israeli forces are fighting Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The Israeli military said a ballistic missile launched from Iran fell in Lebanese territory on Tuesday, as the Middle East war dragged into its fourth week.

"Following an assessment and based on the data available to the IDF (Israeli army), alongside the launches carried out toward the State of Israel earlier today, a ballistic missile fired by the Iranian terror regime fell in Beirut," a military statement said, referring to the missile fragments that landed in various areas of Keserwan and Metn earlier in the day.