NEW YORK, November 7. /TASS/. The Lebanese group Hezbollah will step up attacks on bordering Israeli areas and US military sites in the Middle East up to a "complete confrontation" if Israel continues its offensive in the Gaza Strip, Naim Qassem, the group’s deputy secretary general, said in an interview with NBC News.

"Hezbollah participates [in the conflict] for the sake of lowering the pressure on Gaza," he said.

He said the increasingly frequent bombardments of Israel by the group aim to send a clear signal to Israel that an expansion of the ground operation in Gaza will have serious consequences.

"If [Israel and the US] continue in their aggression in this way and escalate this aggression and leave a negative impact that is larger than what is currently happening now, it will increase the situation and will lead to a complete confrontation," Qassem warned.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said on November 6 that it was concerned about the rising numbers of civilian fatalities as the sides of the conflict trade blows. A spokesman for the force said there’s a trend for hostilities to be getting out of hand in border areas.

The last time a conflict broke out between the Shiite militia Hezbollah and the Israeli military was in 2006. UN Security Council Resolution 1701 established a ceasefire on the border, which is now monitored by 12,000 peacekeepers from 36 states.