US President Joe Biden said the move was meant "to defend Israel,"which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on Oct 1. 

His call to UN chief Antonio Guterres came a day after the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) repeated its refusal to withdraw from the border area after five of its members were wounded in the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Israel had asked UNIFIL to withdraw from positions "up to five kilometers from the Blue Line" separating both countries, but the peacekeepers refused.

Thai nationals in Israel have been particularly hard hit since the start of the war with Hamas, with at least 39 killed as a result of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.

Authorities have evacuated 79 Indonesian citizens and a foreigner married to one of the evacuees from Lebanon amid intensifying Israeli forces' military offensive in the Middle Eastern country.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi and Indonesian representatives at the United Nations have urged Israeli forces and other parties in the conflict in Lebanon to respect the inviolability, safety and security of UN peacekeeping forces.

Israel has vowed to launch a "deadly, precise, and surprising" attack on Iran in retaliation for its second-ever direct strike on Israeli territory.

In Lebanon's south, two United Nations peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force's main headquarters in Naqoura, prompting the UN to say its personnel were facing increasing danger.

Andrea Tenenti said Israeli attacks on the peacekeeping force known as UNIFIL with tank shells and small arms fire had left two wounded members in hospital and knocked out some of their monitoring capabilities on Wednesday and Thursday. 

UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on Sept. 23, after a year of cross-border fire.

The United States on Wednesday said Israel must avoid any Gaza-like military action in Lebanon after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned it risked "destruction" like that in the Palestinian territory.

Leaders from Islamist group Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement discussed plans for cooperation after the war in Gaza in a new round of talks in Cairo on Wednesday, a Hamas official told Reuters.

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has recovered after successfully completing medical tests for lung inflammation on Wednesday, the state news agency (SPA) said, citing the royal court.

Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces exchanged fire along the Lebanon-Israel border on Wednesday, ahead of expected talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and United States President Joe Biden.

Indonesia will send humanitarian aid worth US$1 million each to Sudan, Yemen, Palestine, and Vietnam.

UN humanitarian officials has called for urgent action to stop the escalating conflict in Lebanon from spiraling into a similar scene of devastation as seen in Gaza.

Israel ramped up its ground offensive against Hezbollah along Lebanon's southern coast on Tuesday, deploying more troops and urging civilians near the Mediterranean to evacuate.

A total of 40 Indonesians who were recently evacuated from Lebanon arrived in Jakarta on Monday, amid an intensified offensive by Israeli forces in the middle eastern country.

Hezbollah rockets hit Israel's third-largest city of Haifa, police said early on Monday, and Israeli media reported 10 injured in the country's north on the first anniversary of the Gaza war, which has spread in the Middle East.

An Israeli military spokesman said on Saturday that Israel would retaliate, following last week's missile attack by Tehran, "when the time is right."

The strike on the mosque, near the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, came as the war between Israel and Hamas in the Palestinian enclave approaches its first anniversary.

"As Israel fights the forces of barbarism led by Iran, all civilised countries should be standing firmly by Israel's side. Yet, President Macron and other Western leaders are now calling for arms embargoes against Israel. Shame on them," Netanyahu said in a statement issued by his office.

Macron also criticised Netanyahu's decision to send troops into ground operations in Lebanon.

"The war is traumatising for both animals and people. They're being bombed every day, and they don't know what's happening."

"There is no safe place for the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people have the right to defend themselves," says the owner of a cafe that got destroyed in an Israeli air strike in the West Bank.

Sixty-five Indonesian citizens have fled Lebanon since early August amid intensified Israeli military offensive in the country, with 25 of them have arrived in Jakarta.

However, Biden said more needed to be done to avoid a Middle East war, as Israel's military hit Beirut with new air strikes in its battle against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Hamieh said the strike hit inside Lebanese territory near the border crossing, creating a four-metre (12 feet) wide crater.

The Israeli army said it intercepted a large number of the incoming missiles -- 180 according to the army, while Iran said it had launched 200.

US President Joe Biden, who consulted with his G7 counterparts on Wednesday after the Islamic republic fired off about 200 ballistic missiles, set a clear red line for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.