French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne
French Foreign Minister Stephane SejourneReuters/HANS LUCAS

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne on Sunday urged de-escalation between Israel and Hezbollah during his second visit to Lebanon since cross-border tensions flared alongside the Gaza war, AFP reported.

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

Paris presented to both Lebanon and Israel an initiative earlier this year seeking to end hostilities.

"We refuse a worst-case scenario... No one has any interest in Israel and Hezbollah continuing this escalation. This is my message here," Sejourne told reporters in Beirut, according to AFP.

He said he "will bring this same message to Israel on Tuesday" when he visits there.

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

Ahead of Sunday’s press conference, Sejourne met Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Najib Mikati, army chief Joseph Aoun and influential parliamentary Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally.

A return to stability "requires the redeployment of armed forces in southern Lebanon," he added, referring to a region where Hezbollah holds sway.

In March, Beirut submitted its response to the French initiative, based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

The objective of the French roadmap, Sejourne said, "is to achieve the full implementation by all parties of Security Council Resolution 1701."

Resolution 1701 stipulates that Hezbollah must not be allowed to operate in southern Lebanon and the entire area of southern Lebanon must be free of any armed personnel and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which acts as a buffer between Lebanon and Israel and operates near the border, works to implement Resolution 1701, but the resolution has been repeatedly breached.

Overnight Saturday, 26 rockets were fired at Israeli territory from Lebanon. Some of the rockets fell in open areas and some were intercepted.

An IDF soldier was lightly injured in the barrage. The soldier was taken to Ziv Hospital in Tzfat, where he underwent tests in the emergency room and was treated by an orthopedist. He was later released from the hospital.

Sharif Suad, a resident of Ras al-Ein, an Arab village in the Galilee, was killed overnight Thursday as a result of an anti-tank missiles strike on the area of Har Dov in northern Israel.

Suad, a member of a Bedouin family that has contributed a lot to the IDF over the years, worked as a truck driver for the IDF as part of infrastructure work to create a barrier on Har Dov. The work is mostly carried out at night, in virtually complete darkness in order not to be seen by Hezbollah surveillance.

The Israeli driver's truck was hit by an anti-tank missile after being tracked by Hezbollah. An evacuation operation took several long minutes under fire and included artillery cover and air strikes.

(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Seventh Day of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)