U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein is expected to return to Lebanon within a week to “continue the initiative he had proposed to Speaker Nabih Berri,” which aims to “find a diplomatic solution between Lebanon and Israel,” informed sources said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says its alliance of militant groups opposed to Israel remains strong despite the killing of many of their senior leaders.

“God willing, the world will see a day when the Zionist regime will be defeated by them,” Iranian state TV reported the leader as saying Thursday.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump had “signed a written pledge at Hassan Abbas’ restaurant (in the U.S. state of Michigan) to secure a ceasefire in Lebanon once he wins.”

Lebanese state media said an Israeli drone strike on Thursday targeted a car on a key road linking the capital Beirut with the Bekaa plain and eastern neighbor Syria.

"An enemy drone targeted a car in Araya," the National News Agency said, adding the road had been cut off by the strike that comes after two cars were targets on the same route last week, including a van loaded with Hezbollah ammunition.

Health Minister Firass Abiad told AFP on Wednesday more than 2,600 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel launched intense air strikes on Lebanon more than a month ago.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah had fired about 120 projectiles across the border from Lebanon on Wednesday, as an AFP journalist reported hearing interceptions over commercial hub Tel Aviv.

Lebanon's health ministry said 40 people had been killed in Israeli strikes on the country's east including the main city of Baalbek Wednesday, with rescuers still looking for survivors under the rubble.

"The series of Israeli enemy strikes on the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek" killed "40 people and injured 53", the ministry said in a statement giving a preliminary toll.

Hezbollah claimed a slew of attacks on Wednesday, including two that targeted naval bases near the Israeli city of Haifa and two near Tel Aviv.

Hezbollah fighters "targeted the Stella Maris naval base northwest of Haifa with a salvo of high-quality missiles and a squadron of attack drones," the group said in a statement.

Israel conducted air strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs overnight Thursday, with one raid hitting an area near Lebanon's only international airport.

The pre-dawn raids came after Hezbollah claimed a slew of attacks on Israel, including a missile strike targeting a military base near Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport.

Strikes hit south Beirut on Wednesday about an hour after Israel issued evacuation warnings for three areas of the main Hezbollah bastion, AFPTV footage showed.

One of the strikes triggered a loud explosion which was heard across much of the capital, witnesses said.