BEIRUT: The United States said Monday it wants the Israel-Hizbollah war to end "as soon as possible", and pressed for the enforcement of a UN resolution that required the Iran-backed group to withdraw from south Lebanon.

The call from Israel's top ally came as Israeli forces escalated their nearly month-long war in Lebanon, including targeting a finance group linked to the group, and continued pounding Gaza more than one year into the war there.

With the fighting raging, US envoy Amos Hochstein, visiting Lebanon's capital, said Washington wants to see the conflict in Lebanon end "as soon as possible".

"Tying Lebanon's future to other conflicts in the region was not and is not in the interest of the Lebanese people," Hochstein said, referring to a key Hizbollah demand that any ceasefire in Lebanon be linked to an end to the war in Gaza.

Hochstein also said that while UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Israel-Hizbollah war, should be the basis for a new ceasefire, the parties had not done enough to implement it since then.

Under Resolution 1701, only the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL should have been able to deploy in areas south of Lebanon's Litani River near the Israeli border.

But Hizbollah remained in south Lebanon, and started launching low-intensity cross-border strikes into Israel last year in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to begin another tour of the Middle East in Israel on Tuesday, on a new push for an elusive Gaza ceasefire as fears persist of even wider war.

Israel has vowed to respond to an Iranian missile attack on October 1 - itself retaliation for the killings of top militants - putting the region on tenterhooks.

It expanded the scope of its war from Gaza to Lebanon last month, vowing to keep fighting Hizbollah until it secures its northern border to allow for the return of people displaced by rocket fire.

In Gaza, the war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel's bombing and ground offensives in Gaza have killed 42,603 people, a majority civilians, according to data from the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon has repeatedly accused Israeli forces of targeting its members and positions, including "deliberately" demolishing a UNIFIL tower and fence over the weekend.

On Monday, Germany demanded that Israel "clarify every incident" involving UNIFIL.

Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have fled the assault on northern Gaza, and according to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees around 400,000 people were trapped in northern Gaza last week.

The UN has warned of the risk of famine in Gaza, its figures showing that 396 aid trucks have entered the territory so far this month - far below the 3,003 seen in September.

 - AFP