The Israeli military said on Thursday that one of its soldiers was killed in southern Lebanon, the first fatality since the announcement of a new ceasefire plan.

Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and West Bekaa killed eight people and wounded 15 others on Thursday, hours after a new ceasefire was announced between Lebanon and Israel, the Health Ministry said.

An Israeli strike in on Sohmor in West Bekaa killed five people, while another attack near the southern city of Tyre killed three more, the ministry said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the latest killing of a peacekeeper in southern Lebanon and demanded those responsible be brought to justice, his spokesman said Thursday.

The Swiss subsidiary of British bank HSBC has been charged in France as part of an embezzlement probe into former Lebanese central bank chief Riad Salameh, the financial crimes prosecutor's office said Thursday.

Despite living just 300 meters from the border wall separating Israel from Lebanon, Sigalit Levin has little enthusiasm for the new ceasefire deal meant to bring a lasting end to fighting with Hezbollah.

Israel and Lebanon have agreed to implement a ceasefire that would require Hezbollah to stop firing, withdraw from near the border and would see Lebanon's army deploy in new "pilot zones" in the area.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said that France backed the ceasefire in Lebanon after the announcement of an agreement in Washington.

The French head of state told reporters on a visit to Montenegro: "We support the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel and everything that helps restore peace, combat terrorist activities, and fully establish Lebanon's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

A Hezbollah official told AFP on Thursday that the group had informed Lebanese authorities that it rejects a ceasefire announced after Israel-Lebanon talks in Washington a day earlier.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Thursday that the army would begin deploying in "pilot zones" in the country's south, a day after Israel and Lebanon agreed in Washington to implement a ceasefire.

"The next step is practical and tangible: the deployment of the Lebanese army in pilot zones as a first phase," Salam said, according to remarks read out by Information Minister Paul Morcos after a cabinet meeting, adding that "this does not prejudice our right to a full (Israeli) withdrawal, but brings us closer to it."

The European Union signed off Thursday on a new 100-million-euro ($116 million) support package for the Lebanese Army, as it seeks to bolster the military amid a fragile ceasefire in the country.