France Urges Calm in Lebanon

France's top diplomat urged calm in Lebanon during his second visit to the country since cross-border tensions with Israel flared on the back of the war in Gaza.

France's top diplomat Stephane Sejourne meets with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib during his second visit to the country since cross-border tensions with Israel flared on the back of the war in Gaza.

Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah group have exchanged near-daily fire since Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 sparked the war in Gaza.

Fighting has intensified in recent weeks, with Israel striking deeper into Lebanese territory, while Hezbollah has stepped up its missile and drone attacks on military positions in northern Israel.

The United States has led diplomatic efforts to halt violence along the border with Israel, with France also seeking ways to de-escalate tensions.

Paris presented to both Lebanon and Israel an initiative in January seeking to end hostilities.

During a visit to the headquarters of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon (UNIFIL), French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne reiterated that Paris has been making proposals to "avoid war in Lebanon".

"I will head to Beirut to meet political authorities to make proposals," he added. "Our responsibility is to mitigate escalation, and that is also our role in UNIFIL. We have 700 soldiers here."

Hezbollah has repeatedly declared that only a ceasefire in Gaza will put an end to its attacks on Israel.

A French diplomatic source said that the volume of cross-border attacks had doubled since April 13.

In March, Beirut submitted its response to the French initiative, which was based on UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the Hezbollah-Israel 2006 war.

The resolution called for the removal of weapons in southern Lebanon from the hands of everyone except the army and other state security forces.