Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is visiting Lebanon, her office has said, the first head of state or government to visit since an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, Al Jazeera reports.

Meloni was welcomed at Beirut International Airport by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, with whom she was due to hold talks before making a joint statement to the press.

Italy has around 1,000 troops as part of the UN’s peacekeeping force in Lebanon, which has come under repeated Israeli fire in recent days.

Meloni has condemned the incidents as “unacceptable”.