(Jerusalem) A U.S. envoy arrived in Israel on Monday to press for a de-escalation with Lebanon, as an Israeli official said Hezbollah had fired more than 5,000 projectiles toward Israel since the start of the Gaza war.

Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have exchanged almost daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian Islamist movement’s attack on Israel on October 7, which sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.  

The US president’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein, met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday, days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a tour of the Middle East that a cease -the fire in Gaza was the best way to end the violence between Hezbollah and Israel.

“I can confirm that US President Joe Biden’s envoy […] met with our prime minister,” government spokesperson David Mencer said at a press briefing.  

Mencer said Hezbollah had fired more than 5,000 explosive rockets, anti-tank missiles and drones into Israeli territory since the start of the Gaza conflict.  

Mr. Hochstein also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog, discussing with him “the incessant attacks and rocket fire by Iran-backed Hezbollah toward northern Israeli cities,” according to the Israeli presidency.

Hezbollah claimed last week that it had carried out more than 2,100 military operations against Israel since October 8, the day after the Hamas attack.

Hezbollah attacks have intensified since the death on Tuesday of one of its most important commanders, Taleb Sami Abdallah, killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Jouaiyya, in southern Lebanon, bordering northern Israel. The army confirmed it had eliminated the commander who it said had “planned and executed attacks” against Israel.

“The risk of miscalculations leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real,” said the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the head of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Aroldo Lazaro.

More than eight months of violence on the Israeli-Lebanese border have left at least 471 dead in Lebanon, most of them fighters, but also 91 civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Hezbollah data and official Lebanese sources. .

On the Israeli side, at least 15 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed, according to authorities.