Economies in the Middle East and North Africa face a "shadow of uncertainty" from ongoing tensions in the region, a senior IMF official told AFP on Thursday.

"We are in a context where the overall outlook is cast into shadows," the International Monetary Fund's director for the Middle East and Central Asia department, Jihad Azour, said in an interview in Washington.

Hezbollah targeted Friday a group of soldiers near the al-Raheb post in northern Israel, while Israeli warplanes raided the southern border town of Aita al-Shaab.

Hezbollah on Thursday carried out 11 attacks on northern Israel and the occupied Shebaa Farms and Kfarshouba hills, as cross-border strikes intensified between Israel and Hezbollah.

France President Emmanuel Macron will meet Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and army chief Joseph Aoun on Friday in Paris, the French presidency said.

The announcement on Thursday comes as fears have increased in recent days of a regional escalation in the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Israeli warplanes on Thursday targeted a house in the southern border town of Blida, the National News Agency said.

“Ambulance crews are heading to the location,” NNA added.

Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Thursday stressed that security agencies will “prevent any form of strife.”

“All security agencies will not accept any form of self-security,” Mawlawi added, emphasizing that “Lebanon will not accept self-security, which is rejected and prohibited.”

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Thursday held talks in Bkirki with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“We’re open to ever dialogue and we’re all working for the safety of Christians, not their security as some are proposing,” said Franjieh after the meeting, apparently accusing rival Christian parties of seeking to be in charge of security in certain areas.

German airline giant Lufthansa on Thursday extended its suspension of flights to and from Tehran and Beirut to the end of April and said its planes would continue avoiding Iranian airspace.

"Our flights to Tehran and Beirut are cancelled up to and including 30 April and we are still not using Iranian airspace until the same date," a spokesman for the airline told AFP.

Four ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon met Thursday with Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil at his residence in Bayyada, as they resumed their meetings for a second day in Beirut.

The ambassadors of Egypt, France, KSA, and Qatar agreed with Bassil on separating the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in the south from the presidential file, Egyptian Ambassador Alaa Moussa said after the meeting.

Lebanon's interior minister has alleged that the mysterious abduction and killing of a Hezbollah-linked Lebanese currency exchanger in a villa on the edge of a quiet mountain resort town earlier this month was likely the work of Israeli operatives.

The killing of Mohammad Srour, 57, who was sanctioned by the U.S., was like something out of an international spy thriller. Pistols equipped with silencers and gloves were found in a bucket of water and chemicals at the scene, apparently intended to remove fingerprints and other evidence, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said in an interview with The Associated Press. Thousand of dollars in cash were left scattered around Srour's body, as if to dispel any speculation that robbery was the motive.

Two Hezbollah members were killed Thursday in an overnight strike on the southern border town of Kfarkila, as tensions flared on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Israeli warplanes and artillery also heavily bombed the town of al-Khiam, including with white phosphorus bombs, while a drone targeted a house in Markaba.