Speaker Nabih Berri has told his visitors that U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein’s visits to Lebanon and Israel will be his last, noting that “the negotiations this time are based on something, pending the Israeli response.”

Israel’s defense minister said his country insists on the right to act militarily against Hezbollah in any agreement to end the fighting in Lebanon.

Lebanon’s government is likely to view any such demand as an infringement on its sovereignty, complicating efforts to end more than a year of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah that erupted into all-out war in September.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said in a speech aired Wednesday that the success of the ongoing U.S.-led negotiations with Israel depends on the Israeli response and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's “seriousness.”

“Israel cannot impose its conditions on us,” Qassem stressed, emphasizing that Hezbollah will not accept a truce with Israel that would violate Lebanon's sovereignty.

The agreement that is being negotiated between Israel and Lebanon will grant both sides the right to self-defense should one of them come under attack from the other side, LBCI television reported on Wednesday.

Italy's defense ministry said Tuesday that Hezbollah staged an attack on a U.N. peacekeeping base in Lebanon that it had blamed on Israel.

Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said that Israel on Tuesday staged an "intolerable" new attack on the U.N. peacekeeping force in Shamaa.

The Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed a soldier on Wednesday, a day after it said three other personnel were killed in a strike on their position in south Lebanon.

South Lebanon has seen intense fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said Wednesday that he made "additional progress" in the Lebanon-Israel ceasefire talks after he held a second meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Hezbollah said it carried out several attacks on Israeli troops near the border Wednesday.

Lebanon's official National News Agency reported Israeli shelling and air strikes in south Lebanon overnight and on Wednesday, saying Israeli troops were seeking to advance further near the town of Khiam.

Lebanese footballer Celine Haidar was about to make her dream of playing for the national women's team come true, but debris from an Israeli strike left the 19-year-old in a medically induced coma.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was in Lebanon Wednesday, seeking to hammer out a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah, as the militant group battled Israeli troops in the south of the country.