Israel will soon decide whether to go on the offensive at the border with Lebanon, top officials said, adding to fears of a wider war as fighting with the Hezbollah militant group has intensified.

As war has raged in Gaza, Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged a steady drumbeat of attacks for months - the worst fighting between the two foes since a deadly, month-long war in 2006. U.S. mediation attempts have so far failed to negotiate a diplomatic solution.

Alongside the creeping escalation in fighting, there have been mounting calls from Israeli officials to deal a decisive blow at that border, fueling concerns of a broader regional conflict.

“We are prepared for very intense action in the north,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday on a visit to a military base there.

The Israeli leader vowed to restore security “one way or another,” after the military’s chief of staff, Herzl Halevi, said, “We are approaching a decision point.” He said the army was ready and had gone through training “to move to an offensive.”

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, on his own tour in the north, pledged Tuesday that hostilities at the border would be dealt with by the end of the summer, whether by diplomatic agreement or military escalation. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said Wednesday after visiting northern Israel that Netanyahu’s government has “abandoned the north.” He said that what was “being burned up here isn’t just the north. … What’s being burned up is Israeli deterrence, respect, the idea that someone is running this country.”

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a militant group and political party in Lebanon, has said it does not want a full-blown war, while also asserting that it is prepared for one.

The deputy leader of Hezbollah, Naim Qassem, told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that “our decision is not to widen” the conflict, but he added that “if it is imposed on us, we are ready for it.” Hezbollah has also said there will be no deal before a cease-fire in Gaza.

The United States and allies have tried for months to avoid a wider war by urging a deal between the two sides to demarcate the land border, move Hezbollah away from the frontier and boost the Lebanese army presence there.

In a statement urging restraint, the European Union said it was “increasingly concerned” about rising tensions and “forced displacement of civilians on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border” - which has faced near-daily bombardments.

In Lebanon’s south, Israeli airstrikes have scorched swaths of farmland and pushed tens of thousands of people to flee to other parts of the country, which is already beset by economic collapse.

Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that Israeli forces have used white phosphorus munitions, which produce thick smoke and flames that are difficult to put out, in 17 areas of southern Lebanon since October.

The Israeli military said it uses white phosphorus shells to create smokescreens, not for targeting. Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon that injured at least nine civilians, according to a Washington Post analysis of shell fragments found in a small village.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from northern Israel, piling pressure on Israeli leaders to take action at the border to allow them to return. Hezbollah rockets this week set off fires that spread in the region.

Israeli leaders have said privately that they expect domestic protests to grow if residents are not able to return before the start of the next school year in September.

Here’s what to know

-Thousands of Israelis, including many nationalists, marched through Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday for the annual Flag March, which draws settlers and other right-wing activists to mark the 1967 Israeli capture of the eastern part of the city. Some chanted anti-Arab slogans including “Death to Arabs,” the Associated Press reported. Israeli police arrested 18 people on suspicion of violent crimes, assault and threats, and disorderly conduct. Police said they apprehended five people - identified by the Times of Israel as “ultranationalist Jewish youths” - who “threw objects towards journalists” near the Damascus Gate. “Lawless aggressors disrupt all participants in the parade, both through their violent behavior and through the vile and unacceptable shouts heard from their mouths,” the police said on X.

- Hamas officials met with the prime minister of Qatar and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel on Wednesday in Doha to discuss the proposal for a Gaza hostage deal and cease-fire, said a diplomat familiar with the matter. The meeting comes as the Biden administration continues to push for a deal outlined by President Biden last week that imposes an immediate cease-fire as well as follow-on negotiations to bring an end to the war. CIA Director William J. Burns is also in the Qatari capital working to advance the deal, but was not in the meeting, as U.S. officials have not been negotiating directly with Hamas, said the diplomat.

- Israel said it has started moving inmates out of a detention camp where human rights groups alleged that Palestinian prisoners were being abused, local media reported. The government said during a Supreme Court hearing Wednesday that it is limiting activity at Sde Teiman, a detention facility in southern Israel for Palestinians arrested from Gaza. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel filed a petition alleging that prisoners there faced “cage-like facilities, without beds,” surgeries without anesthesia and “severe handcuffing that led to amputation,” among other alleged abuses. The United States earlier said reports of conditions at Sde Teiman were “deeply concerning” and “very troubling.”

- A gunman who opened fire near the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon early Wednesday was shot and wounded by Lebanese troops, the country’s army said. The gunman’s motive was not immediately clear. The embassy said “small-arms fire was reported in the vicinity of the entrance,” adding that the “facility and our team are safe.”

- The House passed legislation aiming to impose sanctions on officials at the International Criminal Court after its chief prosecutor said he was seeking charges against Israeli and Hamas leaders for war crimes. The bill, written by Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), passed Tuesday on a vote of 247-155, receiving most of its support from Republicans. It is unlikely to become law, however, and White House officials said Monday that the administration opposes it.

- At least ​​36,586 people have been killed and 83,074 injured in Gaza since the war started, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority of the dead are women and children. Israel estimates that about 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, including more than 300 soldiers, and it says 287 soldiers have been killed since the launch of its military operations in Gaza.

John Hudson, Miriam Berger, Lior Soroka and Hajar Harb contributed to this report.

previous coverage

• Israel nears decision on Lebanon border offensive, army chief says
• Fires set off by Hezbollah rockets spread through northern Israel