BEIRUT / ISTANBUL

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam ordered the country’s foreign minister on Thursday to summon Iranian embassy officials after the Revolutionary Guards claimed a joint operation with Hezbollah against Israel.

The order was issued during a Cabinet meeting at the Grand Serail, the government headquarters in Beirut, Information Minister Paul Morcos said.

Morcos said Salam asked Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi to summon “relevant officials” from the Iranian Embassy after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed an operation against Israel in coordination with Hezbollah, the state news agency NNA reported.

Late Wednesday, the IRGC revealed details of what it described as the first “joint attack” with Hezbollah on Israel since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Tehran, saying it formed part of the 40th wave of missile strikes against Israel.

The IRGC said the operation was designed “to sustain continuous fire for five hours.”

The development comes as Israeli attacks on Lebanon intensified, with airstrikes continuing across the south, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Hezbollah has responded by launching rockets and drones toward northern Israel as well as the central cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

According to the Israeli public broadcaster KAN, Israeli authorities detected the launch of more than 200 rockets from Lebanon toward northern Israel overnight.

Hezbollah also fired about 100 rockets in a single barrage Wednesday evening toward Haifa, the Galilee and other areas in northern Israel, injuring two people, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

Separately, Salam reaffirmed during the Cabinet meeting that diplomatic efforts to halt the Israeli offensive are ongoing and thanked countries that have sent humanitarian aid to Lebanon, Morcos said.

He added that 22 Israeli attacks on medical teams since the start of the current escalation have killed 15 people and wounded 45 others.

Morcos also said the overall death toll in Lebanon since March 2 has reached 687 people, including 98 children and 52 women.

Regional tensions has escalated amid US-Israeli attacks on Iran that have killed about 1,300 people and injured more than 10,000 since Feb. 28.

Iran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military assets.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul