Curled up in his father's lap, clinging to his chest, Hussein Mikdad cried his heart out. The 4-year-old kicked his doctor with his intact foot and pushed him away with the arm that was not in a cast. "My Dad! My Dad!" Hussein said. "Make him leave me alone!" With eyes tearing up in relief and pain, the father reassured his son and pulled him closer.

Hussein and his father, Hassan, are the only survivors of their family after an Israeli airstrike last month on their Beirut neighborhood. The strike killed 18 people, including his mother, three siblings and six relatives.

Hezbollah said on Monday that the Israeli military has been unable to occupy even a single village in Lebanon since launching cross-border ground operations in September.

Taiwan investigators said Monday there was no evidence that Taiwanese individuals or firms were involved in a deadly September attack targeting Hezbollah communications devices which exploded in Lebanon.

"Our investigation has verified that no nationals or domestic companies were involved in Lebanon's high-profile pager detonation incidents," Taiwan prosecutors said in a statement.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has informed the Biden administration that he expects to see progress in the efforts to obtain a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli news portal Ynet has reported.

Lebanese official media reported an Israeli strike on a house in the main eastern city of Baalbek on Sunday, which was not preceded by an Israeli army evacuation warning.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 23 people, including seven children, in the Jbeil district village of Almat north of the capital Beirut.

Israeli Minister of Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has paid a secret visit to Russia in a bid to reach a settlement with Lebanon, the Israeli army radio reported.

A wave of Israeli strikes on east and south Lebanon on Saturday killed at least 33 people, the health ministry said, as Israel intensified its air campaign against Hezbollah.

The Israeli military has accused a group of soldiers of burning a Lebanese flag in southern Lebanon where they are fighting Hezbollah.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have returned to their country since Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment on wide swathes of Lebanon in September. Many who fled to Lebanon after the war in Syria started in 2011 did not want to go back.

But for officials in Lebanon, the influx of returnees comes as a silver lining to the war between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced some 1.2 million in Lebanon. Some in Syria hope the returning refugees could lead to more international assistance and relief from western sanctions.