Amnesty International said Tuesday that the Israeli army's extensive destruction of civilian property in south Lebanon, including after a ceasefire with Hezbollah was struck, should be investigated as a war crime.

The November 27 truce largely ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war during which Israel sent in ground troops and conducted a major bombing campaign.

U.S. envoy to Lebanon Tom Barrack and U.S. diplomat Morgan Ortagus, who arrived Monday in Beirut, had stressed in their meetings with Israeli officials the necessity of "creating positive momentum", American news portal Axios said.

Barrack and Ortagus had met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, and Israel's defense and foreign ministers in Israel on Sunday.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Monday called on the government to “hold intensive sessions to discuss how to regain sovereignty through diplomacy, equipping the army and a defense strategy.”

“If we want to solve our problems in Lebanon, the start should be halting the aggression, Israel’s withdrawal, reconstruction and releasing the captives, and the government today is responsible for devising a plan for achieving this sovereignty,” said Qassem in a televised speech commemorating late religious scholar Sheikh Abbas Ali al-Moussawi.

Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa has lamented that some in Lebanon are depicting Syria’s new authorities as “terrorists and an existential threat” while other Lebanese “want to rely on the strength of new Syria to settle scores with Hezbollah.”

“We are neither this nor that,” Sharaa added.

U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus arrived Monday in Beirut after she visited Israel along with U.S. envoy Tom Barrack.

Prior to her arrival, Ortagus lauded Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement on Israel's readiness to gradually decrease its troop presence in south Lebanon in return for Lebanese steps to disarm Hezbollah.

In a meeting Monday with visiting U.S. Senators Darin LaHood and Steve Cohen, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam demanded that Israel withdraw from south Lebanon and halt its strikes on Lebanon.

Salam stressed that Israel must respect Lebanon's sovereignty and withdraw from the five hills it is still occupying in south Lebanon, enabling the Lebanese army to complete its deployment in the south. He also called for the release of Lebanese prisoners and for a halt of hostilities which would allow Lebanon to start rebuilding war-hit areas and recover from the 14-month Israeli war.

President Joseph Aoun stressed Monday the need that Lebanon “meet the Arab and international interest in the country through boosting the confidence restoration steps.”

A Syrian delegation will visit Lebanon this week to prepare for a high-level meeting between Lebanese and Syrian officials, media reports said.

Pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported Monday that a committee from the Syrian ministries of foreign affairs, interior, and justice, will visit Beirut next Thursday to arrange for the official meeting.

Brig. Gen. Iraj Masjedi, the assistant commander of Iran’s Quds Force for coordination affairs, announced Monday that “the Hezbollah disarmament plan in Lebanon is an American-Zionist plan that will never be implemented.”

Recent and similar statements by the same official and by other Iranian officials had prompted Lebanese authorities to strongly condemn “interference” in Lebanon’s domestic affairs.

The Lebanese Army has not asked for an extension of the deadline set by the Lebanese government for the disarmament of Hezbollah and the other armed groups in the country, a Lebanese military source said.

“The army’s plan for the removal of Hezbollah’s arms has become almost ready,” the source told Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath channel.