“As we await further clarity on the circumstances, we again urge the parties to exercise maximum restraint and call on all concerned to avoid any further escalation,”UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a note to correspondents that evening.

He called on all parties to comply with their obligations under international law; to urgently commit to the full implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1701, adopted in response to the 2006 war between Hizbollah and Israel, and to immediately return to a cessation of hostilities.

The UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, also appealed for “calm to prevail” in a statement expressing deep concern over the strikes, noting that they occurred in the densely populated southern suburb of the capital.

She underscored that “there is no such thing as a military solution”, and called on both Israel and Lebanon “to avail of all diplomatic avenues to pursue a return to the cessation of hostilities and to recommit to the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006).”

The air strikes came in the wake of a deadly rocket attack on a football field in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in Syria on Saturday. Twelve civilians, mainly children and teenagers, were killed.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres and other senior officials condemned the attack.