Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed five people, including a child, and wounded 48, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Those wounded in the strikes across the south included "a doctor and five employees of Tebnine Governmental Hospital, which sustained damage in yet another episode of the series of attacks carried out by the Israeli enemy against hospitals and health centers", the ministry said in a statement.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday expressed hope that a deal to end the war in Iran was in the cards, stressing that Tehran must severely curtail its nuclear program before any sanctions are lifted.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States and Iran were speaking "continuously," denying reports that Tehran had broken off contact over Israel's attacks on Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said Israel would help to make Iran's "terror regime" disappear, as talks to reach a peace agreement between the U.S. and the Islamic republic appeared to stutter.

Two projectiles hit a container vessel in the Gulf as it was leaving port in Iraq, a Swiss-based company said Tuesday, after Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had targeted the ship.

Israel and Lebanon could reach a peace agreement within days were it not for the obstacle posed by Hezbollah, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday, as the two sides began a fourth round of talks in Washington.

"Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Hezbollah will not accept a "partial ceasefire" with Israel, a senior official from the Iran-backed group said Tuesday, refusing to halt attacks against northern Israel in exchange for Israel sparing Beirut's southern suburbs, although they appeared to have stopped on Tuesday.

In a south Lebanon hospital heavily damaged by deadly Israeli strikes nearby, Dr Nasser al-Masri held a new-born baby, calling him "a message of life and hope" despite the war.

Israel continued to strike southern Lebanon on Tuesday as Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked its troops there despite an apparent Washington-brokered de-escalation deal and a fourth round of U.S.-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel.

The ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon began a new round of direct talks in Washington on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said he had received commitments from both sides to de-escalate.