U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein’s visit to Lebanon on Tuesday was “less diplomatic” than the previous ones and his remarks carried a stronger warning, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

Al-Joumhouria newspaper for its part said Hochstein stressed the need to “lower the escalation and the tensions in the south pending the results of the negotiations over Gaza,” conveying “several signals that the negotiations will be finalized soon.”

The New Jersey man accused of repeatedly stabbing author Salman Rushdie is not interested in an offered plea deal that would shorten his time in state prison but expose him to federal prison on a separate terrorism-related charge, his lawyer said.

Hadi Matar, 26, sat silently in Chautauqua County Court as lawyers outlined a proposal they said was worked out between state and federal prosecutors and agreed to by Rushdie over the past several months.

Hezbollah attacked Wednesday a command center in Kiryat Shmona and Israeli soldiers' posts in Metula, in response to Israeli strikes on south Lebanon.

The group said it attacked with suicide drones Israeli soldiers in Metula as Israeli warplanes raided the southern towns of Yaroun, Borghlieh and al-Khiam.

The Israeli army said plans for an offensive in Lebanon were "approved and validated" amid escalating cross-border clashes with Hezbollah and a relative lull in Gaza fighting.

The war in Gaza has heightened tensions across the region, with Israeli forces and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, exchanging fire on a near-daily basis.

Israel has warned the Iran-backed Hezbollah it would be destroyed in the event of a "total war", after a U.S. envoy called for de-escalation on the Lebanese border as tensions flare.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz's comments came after Hezbollah published a more than nine-minute video showing drone footage purportedly taken by the movement over northern Israel, including parts of the city and port of Haifa.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein Tuesday called for the "urgent" de-escalation of cross-border exchanges of fire between Lebanon's Hezbollah and Israeli forces raging since the start of the Gaza war.

A member of Hezbollah has been killed by an Israeli drone strike on a car in southern Lebanon, the country's state-run National News Agency reported.

The airstrike came as Hezbollah has not claimed any attack on northern Israel since Saturday night, apparently because of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha that began Sunday morning.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein met Tuesday in Beirut with Speaker Nabih Berri over the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials in Jerusalem.

Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

Some displaced residents of southern Lebanon returned Monday to their towns for a key Muslim holiday to pray and mourn loved ones killed in months of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah.

"Today is Eid al-Adha, but it's completely different this year," said teacher Rabab Yazbek, 44, at a cemetery in the coastal town of Naqoura, from which many residents have fled.

Relative calm engulfed southern Lebanon on Sunday and Monday as Hezbollah appeared to have suspended its cross-border attacks against Israel for the Eid al-Adha holiday.