Israeli and Lebanese envoys are expected to meet for talks in the coming days and U.S. envoy Jared Kushner is leading the effort on Washington's behalf, Israel's Haaretz daily reported on Friday, quoting two sources familiar with the matter.

The file of negotiations with Lebanon has made some progress, with the U.S. administration asking Israel to positively respond to Lebanon's negotiations overture and to explore the Lebanese proposal for halting the war, LBCI's correspondent in Israel, Amal Shehadeh, said on Saturday.

Hezbollah suffered heavy losses in a war with Israel more than a year ago, but the Iran-backed group has now regrouped only to end up fighting what it has called an "existential battle" and which some warn could be its last.

Israel is planning to significantly expand its ground operation in Lebanon, aiming to seize the entire area south of the Litani River and dismantle Hezbollah's military infrastructure, Israeli and U.S. officials told U.S. news portal Axios.

Israeli shells hit a United Nations peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon on Friday, state media reported, as Israel and Hezbollah fought their latest war.

The man accused of ramming his pickup truck into a synagogue and setting it ablaze in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, died from a "self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," an FBI official told reporters Friday.

An Israeli strike hit an apartment building in the northern Beirut suburb of Nabaa that had been targeted a day earlier, Lebanese state media said on Saturday, also reporting strikes in the country's south.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday said Lebanon was ready to engage in "direct talks" with Israel and offered to host negotiations in Paris.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has assigned former Minister Ron Dermer the responsibility of handling the Lebanese file during war, U.S. news portal Axios reported on Friday.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem said on Friday his group was ready for a long confrontation with Israel, as the two sides fought another war in Lebanon which he considered "existential."