Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Wednesday that Lebanon went to the negotiations in Washington because it was "the least costly path for Lebanon."

The Israeli army said an Israeli drone and troops attacked Wednesday morning "two Hezbollah gunmen" on the Ali al-Taher ridge, near the security zone in south Lebanon, after they "posed a threat" to its forces.

Earlier, the Israeli army fired gunshots at two cars in the southern town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, causing no casualties, the state-run National News Agency said.

President Joseph Aoun announced Wednesday that "work is underway to solidify the ceasefire in the south, to be followed by the withdrawal of Israeli forces, the deployment of the Lebanese Army, the return of residents, the release of captives, and the commencement of reconstruction."

The deal between Iran and the United States to end the Middle East war is "America's declaration of defeat", Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the head of the Iranian negotiating team, said on Wednesday.

Looking out from a friend's balcony, Milia el-Cheikh struggled to find her own home in the ruins of her now-deserted village, its entrances strung with barbed wire.

Her village of Dibbine is one of several Shiite-majority communities across southern Lebanon destroyed by Israeli forces battling Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel has occupied vast areas and fighting has raged through declared ceasefires. The latest truce — part of the interim peace deal between the United States and Iran — appears to be holding.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Washington will negotiate and deal with Lebanon directly, and that the U.S.-brokered Lebanon-Israel negotiations are separate from the deal with Iran.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday authorizing new steps to ensure that perpetrators of crimes against peacekeepers face justice.

Nearly 1,100 peacekeepers from countries around the world have lost their lives in the line of duty and thousands of others have been injured since 1948, according to U.N. peacekeeping department figures. Yet the resolution says the rate of prosecution for killings and other criminal acts against peacekeepers "has remained very low."

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who acts as an intermediary for the group, received a phone call Tuesday from French President Emmanuel Macron, his office said.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Tuesday demanded a full, scheduled withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon to make way for a Lebanese Army deployment in the south following the U.S.-Iran deal to end the Middle East war.

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter on Tuesday lamented that Hezbollah feels emboldened after the latest developments and ceasefire.