Israel warned against wider war with Hezbollah after strikes kill at least 4 fighters

Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group has warned Israel against escalating border conflicts into an all-out war.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the group, has boasted it has acquired new weapons but "won't say what they are".

His threats come after Israeli strikes into southern Lebanon on Wednesday killed at least four Hezbollah fighters, according to Lebanese state media.

A US envoy has been tasked with de-escalating the situation and avoiding a devastating regional war.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military said two Hezbollah launches damaged several vehicles in northern Israel.

Hezbollah has used locally made explosive drones for the first time since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October, as well as surface-to-air missiles to chase off Israeli jets.

Israel has said it is aware of the militant group's capabilities, but that its troops are "infinitely greater" and that they would confront Hezbollah "at the right time."

With the Israeli offensive in Gaza now in its ninth month, international criticism has grown steadily over the US support for Israel’s air and ground attacks.

The top United Nations court have concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza - a charge Israel strongly denies. Israel blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying militants operate among the population.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also claimed the US was withholding weapons needed for the war in Gaza.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 37,100 people at the time of writing, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

Israel launched the war after Hamas’ October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people - mostly civilians - and abducted about 250.

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