As Lebanon negotiates sticking points with Israel after a 13-months-long war that ended with Israeli troops occupying five "strategic hills" in south Lebanon and frequent violations of a ceasefire reached in late November, the topic of normalizing relations with Israel has come to the spotlight. But will negotiations eventually lead to normalization?

An Israeli political source said that Israel wants to reach normalization with Lebanon. "We and the Americans think that this is possible after the changes that have occurred in Lebanon," the source told Israel’s Channel 12.

A senior delegation from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut on Friday toured the eastern sector of Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, the National News Agency said.

The ceiling of any indirect Lebanese negotiations with Israel will be the 1949 Armistice Agreement and any talks will be aimed at addressing the disputed border points and Israel’s withdrawal from the five occupied hills, a senior Lebanese official said.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that Israeli forces will stay on the five occupied hills in south Lebanon indefinitely, regardless of any negotiations on disputed border points.

In an assessment of the situation Thursday with army chief Eyal Zamir and senior army generals, Katz clarified that the military will remain at the five points indefinitely, for “the benefit of protecting the residents of the north” and “without any connection to future negotiations on points of dispute on the border.”

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has noted that his government’s top priorities are reform and “the state’s regaining of the war and peace decisions.”

“The state should monopolize arms and it has a duty to extend its authority across its territory with its own forces, as stipulated by the Taif Agreement,” Salam said at an iftar banquet at the Grand Serail.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel "will not give up" the five hills deemed "strategic" it occupies in south Lebanon.

Lebanon named a new head of the armed forces Thursday to succeed Joseph Aoun, who was appointed president earlier this year.

"Brigadier General Rodolphe Haykal was named commander in chief of the armed forces," Minister of Information Paul Morcos said after a cabinet meeting, also confirming a number of other security appointments.

The International Monetary Fund on Thursday welcomed the new Lebanese government's request for support in addressing severe economic challenges.

Lebanon in January elected a new president after a more than two-year vacuum, and then formed a government led by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. In February the IMF said it was open to a new loan agreement with the country following discussions with its recently-appointed finance minister.

The Israeli military said it carried out a strike on a Hezbollah weapons facility in eastern Lebanon on Thursday.

"A short while ago, the IDF (military) conducted a strike on infrastructure at a site used by Hezbollah for manufacturing and storing strategic weapons in the Beqaa area in Lebanon," the military said in a statement.

The Cabinet on Thursday approved the appointment of Brig. Gen. Rudolph Haykal as army chief, Brig. Gen. Hassan Shqeir as General Security head, Brig. Gen. Raed Abdallah as Internal Security Forces chief and Brig. Gen. Edgard Lawandos as State Security head.