U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson has informed Speaker Nabih Berri that U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein's mediation will continue, noting that the latter's efforts "enjoy the blessing of the new U.S. administration," the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has reported.

A top Iranian official pledged his country's unwavering support for Lebanon after talks Friday with Lebanese leaders on the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah, which came as the United States continued actively pushing both sides to agree to a new cease-fire deal.

Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, said that he hoped circumstances would soon improve in Lebanon so that displaced people could return home.

"Serious discussions have resumed" between Speaker Nabih Berri and U.S. officials and there are talks regarding the proposed agreement, but things have not reached the final stages, contrary to what the Israelis are claiming, the pro-Hezbollah Al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Friday, quoting informed sources.

"The pending points are related to the formation of an international committee comprising the U.S., the UK, France and a fourth country that might be Jordan in order to monitor the implementation of Resolution 1701 with all its stipulations," the sources added.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson has handed Speaker Nabih Berri a letter containing a ceasefire proposal from U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein and Berri has promised to respond within two to three days, Al-Jadeed TV has reported.

"Berri is optimistic that a ceasefire can be reached within days or a week if no sudden development comes up," Al-Jadeed added.

The U.N. peacekeeping chief whose force monitors Lebanon’s south said redeploying Lebanese troops there is crucial for any solution to more than a year of Hezbollah-Israel clashes that escalated into war in September.

"The redeployment of the Lebanese armed forces is an absolutely central element to any durable settlement," Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix told reporters during a briefing in the Beirut area.

Rescue teams were searching Friday for missing people through rubble near the city of Baalbek in eastern Lebanon where an Israeli strike hit a civil defense center the night before.

Thirteen bodies were recovered, all of them employees and volunteers of the emergency services agency, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense. Some other remains that will require DNA testing were also recovered, it said in a statement.

Fresh strikes targeted Beirut's southern suburbs on Friday following an evacuation order issued by the Israeli army.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported a "heavy strike" carried out with two missiles fired by an "enemy aircraft" in the area of Bourj al-Barajneh and a "heavy raid" near Horsh Beirut, the capital's largest park.

Lebanon’s health ministry said eight people were killed in an Israeli strike on the main eastern city of Baalbek on Thursday, most of them women, revising an earlier toll of three dead.

"The Israeli enemy strike on the Al-Shaab neighborhood in Baalbek killed eight people including five women" and wounded 27 others, a ministry statement said.

More than a year of clashes that escalated into war in September have cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses and damaged nearly 100,000 housing units, the World Bank said Thursday.

The World Bank report provided estimates for damage between October 8, 2023, and October 27, 2024, saying "the conflict has caused $5.1 billion in economic losses" and that it "damaged an estimated 99,209 housing units" -- mainly in Lebanon's war-torn south.

Lebanon has recently agreed with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein on a draft agreement that was supposed to be presented to Israel and “so far we have not received any remarks or responses regarding that formula that we discussed,” Speaker Nabih Berri’s aide MP Ali Hassan Khalil said.