The Israeli military said Wednesday three soldiers, including a 70-year-old, were killed in south Lebanon, where its troops have battled Hezbollah since late September after a year of cross-border exchanges of fire.

The army announced two soldiers were killed in the same incident including 70-year-old reservist Ze'ev 'Jabo' Hanoch Erlich, after it had said earlier Wednesday that a 22-year-old soldier from Jerusalem "fell during combat in southern Lebanon".

Israeli strikes killed 79 pro-Iran fighters, including from Iraq and Lebanon, in the Syrian city of Palmyra, a monitor said Thursday, updating the toll for the raids a day earlier.

The toll was "the highest due to Israeli raids on pro-Iran groups in Syria since the start of the conflict" in the country in 2011, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK Defense Senior Advisor to the Middle East and North Africa (DSAME) Vice Admiral Edward Ahlgren, met Wednesday with senior Lebanese and U.N. officials and reiterated the UK’s call for an immediate ceasefire, and a political solution in line with UNSC Resolution 1701. Ahlgren expressed condolences on the deaths of Lebanese Army soldiers and officers, and Lebanese civilians.

Ahlgren met with Nabih Berri, Speaker of Parliament, General Joseph Aoun, Chief of Defense for the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon and held a virtual meeting with Force Commander Major General Aroldo Lázaro, UNIFIL Head of Mission. He was accompanied during his visits by British Ambassador to Lebanon Hamish Cowell and Defense Attaché Lt. Colonel Charles Smith.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein, seeking to broker a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war, will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the premier's office said.

The announcement by spokesman Omer Dostri came after Israeli media outlets reported that Hochstein had arrived in Israel on Wednesday evening and held talks with Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer. The Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation described the Hochstein-Dermer talks as "constructive."

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.