Lebanon can't become the next Gaza, Foreign Minister Penny Wong warns as she reiterates urgent pleas for Australians to leave before it's too late.
Israel and Hezbollah have been trading rocket fire with Israel's latest barrage targeting some 1600 sites and killing more than 550 people in an attack it says targeted the designated terrorist organisation's weapon stocks.
It included attacks on residential buildings.
"This destructive cycle must stop, all parties must show restraint and de-escalate," Senator Wong said in New York where she is attending a United Nations summit.
"Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza."
The foreign minister further called on the violence in Gaza to end as the death toll from Israel's counteroffensive against designated terror group Hamas rises above 40,000 and the strip is largely levelled.
"Hostages must be released and aid must flow," she said.
"What has happened in recent days only makes an immediate ceasefire in Gaza even more urgent."
Australians in Lebanon have been told to leave immediately as the situation remains volatile.
Citizens have been warned the path to leave is narrowing as flights are being cancelled and the airport is at risk of closure.
Australian evacuation plans cannot accommodate the estimated 15,000 to 30,000 citizens in Lebanon, Senator Wong says.
"I know there are so many people in Australia who have relatives, friends and family in Lebanon, and this is obviously a very stressful situation for them," she said.
"Please do not wait for a preferred route, take the first opportunity."
The foreign minister met with her Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos on the sidelines of the UN summit.
Australian officials want to avoid a repeat of 2006 when Israel went to war with Hezbollah and 5100 citizens needed to be evacuated.
Evacuations included transporting people across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and across the Syrian border, but the security situation there is much different two decades later after the nation descended into civil war.
The Australian Defence Force has planes and personnel in Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.
At home, Lebanese Australians have been protesting Israel's strikes as the two-day death toll reached 569, including dozens of children, the Lebanese health ministry says.
Education Minister Jason Clare, whose electorate of Blaxland lies in Sydney's multicultural western suburb, said the killing of civilians and children was "beyond words".
He as speaking after hundreds of protesters gathered at Sydney's Town Hall on Tuesday night to decry the strikes.
Senator Wong's comments about Australia being concerned and alarmed at the loss of lives on both sides of the Israel-Lebanon border drew scorn from one protester.
"Israel can act with impunity because they've been doing this for the whole entire year and that is why they are attacking Lebanon with impunity because the West do not care," the unnamed man told the crowd in a video posted to social media.
"The Australian government does not care.
"We stand in solidarity with our Arab and Muslim brothers and sisters."
Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham defended the right to protest but said demonstrations needed to be peaceful and respectful.
"We don't want to see conflict or an undermining of social cohesion here," he added, saying protesters must not feed or encourage anti-Semitism.
Senator Birmingham also reignited a call for the federal government to use its powers to officially designate parts of southern Lebanon a no-go zone for Australian residents, including penalties for people who travel there without a legitimate reason.
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