Israeli forces have regularly traded fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and resulting Israeli offensive in Gaza, but tensions along Israel’s northern border have remained relatively contained, in part owing to U.S. and other Western diplomatic efforts to prevent a wider regional war.

But Israeli leaders have warned in recent days that they are losing patience with diplomatic attempts to end attacks on areas of northern Israel, where more than 230,000 people have been displaced from their homes. More than 70,000 people also have fled their homes in southern Lebanon because of the conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to act to restore security to Israel’s northern border and has approved battle plans to that end.

“We have approved operational plans for the continuation of hostilities. If Hezbollah will expand the fighting, it will absorb hits it never dreamed of,” Netanyahu said during a news conference on Saturday, saying that his threat also applied to Iran. He added that Israel remains open to a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Netanyahu also signaled that Israel wants to seize control of the Gaza Strip’s strategic border with Egypt in what could be a focal point of the next phase of the war with Hamas. The borderline, known as the Philadelphi Corridor, is Gaza’s only boundary that is not fully controlled by Israel. Militant groups have long used tunnels under the border to smuggle weapons and other goods.

“The Philadelphi Corridor has to be in our hands, it has to be closed. It’s clear that any other arrangement won’t guarantee the disarmament that we want,” he said.

A widening of the war to the southern end of Gaza along the Egyptian border could pose a range of military and humanitarian challenges. Most of Gaza’s 2.2 million people have fled to southern Gaza, with many seeking refuge in an increasingly crowded area near the Egyptian border in and around the city of Rafah.

Syria’s state-run news agency SANA said that Israel’s air force struck south of the city of Aleppo. The Israeli military declined to comment on the report, which Syria said took place at 5:20 p.m. local time.

The Israeli military also said that two aircraft were launched from southern Lebanon toward Israeli territory on Saturday. Hezbollah claimed to have launched an attack.

The Israeli military said that its warplanes carried out “an extensive series of strikes” against Hezbollah in Kafr Kila, a village in southern Lebanon, hitting what it said were three militant cells.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said on Saturday morning that Israeli artillery and warplanes struck several areas of southern Lebanon.

Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s chief spokesperson, said on Friday that to ensure security for its northern and southern borders, Israel will “operate firmly against every threat and will not allow a return to the reality before Oct. 7.”

Militants in Lebanon injured several people in Israel this week, including at least one person hurt by an antitank missile fired at an Israeli church, and then several soldiers injured in a follow-on attack when trying to evacuate him, the military said. An Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed three people, including two Lebanese-Australian citizens earlier this week.

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