The UN Security Council called on both Israel and Lebanon on Tuesday to exercise "utmost retraint" as they fired at each other over the border, dpa reported.
Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who took over the council's presidency in August, said the council debated the flare-up in violence and decided to urge for calm.
"Members of the Security Council call for utmost restraint and call on both sides to abide by UN Resolution 1701," Churkin said. The resolution ended the brief Israeli-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006.
Churkin said the council called on Israel and Lebanon to adopt measures to prevent further escalation of the fighting and to cooperate with the UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL). The UN mission was investigating the incident.