Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Tuesday the appointment of Naim Qassem to succeed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah chief would "strengthen" the resistance.

Pezeshkian expressed confidence that Qassem's appointment "will strengthen the will of the resistance", while hoping for "the cessation of aggression by the illegal Zionist regime (Israel) and the establishment of peace, tranquility and security in Gaza, Lebanon, and the entire region," according to his website.

Lebanon's health ministry said at least eight people were killed on Tuesday in an Israeli strike on the southern coastal city of Sarafand.

"The Israeli enemy raid on Sarafand this evening has, according to a provisional toll, left eight dead and 21 wounded," a ministry statement said, adding that rescue workers were searching for survivors.

Hezbollah said it launched drones at an Israeli base in the port city of Haifa on Wednesday, as clashes intensify more than a month into the war.

Hezbollah fighters "launched an air attack at 7:45 am (0545 GMT)... with a squadron of attack drones" on a "base in southern Haifa", the group said in a statement.

U.S. President Joe Biden's senior advisers Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk will arrive in Israel on Thursday to try to close a deal that would end the war in Lebanon and allow displaced civilians from both sides of the border to return to their homes, three sources with direct knowledge of the trip told U.S. news portal Axios.

Israeli and U.S. officials said they believe that after the blows Hezbollah has suffered in the past two months, including the assassination of its leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, it is finally willing to disconnect itself from Hamas in Gaza.

BEIRUT — Analysis from a humanitarian group working in Lebanon forecasts two scenarios in its report on the Hezbollah-Israel conflict, both predicting a severe economic contraction in Lebanon by early 2025.

Mercy Corps’ Lebanon Crisis Analysis Team says Israel’s continued strikes on suspected Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, without blocking key infrastructure, will still bring severe economic and humanitarian risks.

Two Israeli airstrikes targeted Tuesday the Sidon suburb of Haret Saida, killing at least five people and wounding several others.

The strike on Sidon marked the second such attack on the historic coastal city since the recent escalation between Hezbollah and Israel.

A rocket attack on Tuesday injured eight Austrian soldiers with a U.N. peacekeeping contingent in southern Lebanon, the Austrian defense ministry said, condemning the attack and adding it was "currently not possible to say where the attack came from".

"Eight Austrian army soldiers from the UNIFIL contingent (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) were injured today at 12:58 pm (1058 GMT) by a rocket hit in Camp Naqoura; none of them seriously," the statement said, adding the injuries were "minor and superficial".

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, on Tuesday that his appointment was "not for long".

"Temporary appointment. Not for long," Gallant wrote in a post on X alongside a photograph of Qassem, whom Hezbollah had earlier named as assassinated leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s successor.

Speaker Nabih Berri and U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein agreed during the latter's visit to Beirut on "a roadmap for a ceasefire and the implementation of Resolution 1701," a source close to Berri told Sky News Arabia on Tuesday.

"The official Lebanese stance has not changed, despite all the media reports," the source added.

With the U.S. presidential election just a week away, the Biden administration is not giving up hope for short-term deals for cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon.

In Lebanon, where Israel has been intensifying military operations against Hezbollah for the past month, U.S. officials allow that a short-term fix is probably unrealistic.