Lebanon's prime minister visits troops at the country's tense southern border with Israel

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Tuesday visited troops deployed near border with Israel and U.N. peacekeepers, as Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops clash for a third week.

visit by Prime Minister Najib Mikati to tense sourn province is his first since clashes erupted along border following a surprise attack by Palestinian group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7. It also came two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops along border on Sunday.

Mikati and international governments have been scrambling to prevent Hamas-Israel war from expanding to Lebanon, where powerful Hezbollah group warned Israel about a ground incursion into blocked Gaza Strip .

Hezbollah deputy leer Sheikh Naim Kassem said group is in “heart” of war to “defend Gaza and confront occupation."

“Its finger is on trigger to whatever extent it deems necessary for confrontation,” Kassem tweeted.

Clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli military thus far have been mostly limited to several towns along border.

Journalists from Hezbollah's Al-Manar television reported that an Israeli helicopter attack struck an empty position near border town of Houla, after a missile fired from Lebanon hit an Israeli military position. Israeli military said anti-missile attack hit a position in Manara with no casualties. y ded that y struck a group of militants in Mount Dov, a disputed territory known as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon, where borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet.

Meanwhile, Lebanon's top Druze political leer Walid Jumblatt, said that he along with Mikati and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri, who is Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, are in agreement that war shouldn't furr expand into tiny Mediterranean country. Jumblatt said that he held calls with top Hezbollah security officials on matter.

“But matter is not up to Hezbollah alone ... Israel could have hostile intentions,” Jumblatt said after meeting with Druze religious officials and clergymen in Beirut. “We must expect worst.”

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006 that ended in a stalemate. Israel sees Iran-backed Hezbollah as its most serious threat, estimating it has around 150,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Israel on Tuesday, where he reaffirmed calls to prevent war from expanding into Lebanon and wider Arab world, and called for a “decisive” political process with Palestinians for a viable peace.

Macron warned Hezbollah and or Iran-backed groups against opening a new front in ongoing war, and that Paris h expressed those concerns in direct communication with Hezbollah.

“To do so would be to open door to a regional inferno from which everyone would come out loser,” he said.