Israeli Education Minister Haim Biton has said that "a military campaign must be launched in the north to oust Hezbollah and the residents of southern Lebanon beyond the Litani River."

He added: "I believe that this goal can be achieved because the situation in Gaza does not require the presence of three army divisions."

Iran’s acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani began an official visit to Lebanon on Monday by meeting with caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. He later met with Speaker Nabih Berri and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.

Bagheri Kani replaced the late foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who died last month in a helicopter crash in Iran along with president Ebrahim Raisi and other passengers.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the newly appointed United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, arrived Saturday in Beirut. Hennis-Plasschaert will serve as the Head of Mission of the United Nations Office of the Special Coordinator for Lebanon (UNSCOL).

“It is an honor to continue my service with the United Nations, here in Beirut,” the new Special Coordinator said. “In the interest of peace, security and stability in Lebanon and the wider region during this critical period, I look forward to closely cooperating with the Lebanese authorities and all partners in Lebanon and the international community to further the implementation of resolution 1701 (2006),” she added.

An Israeli drone on Saturday targeted a motorcycle on a road in the Marjeyoun district town of Majdal Selm, causing two casualties, the National News Agency said.

An Israeli tank meanwhile targeted the border town of Kfarkila with a shell as Israeli interceptor missiles exploded over Mays al-Jabal.

Israeli strikes on south Lebanon have killed four people including a paramedic and a woman, Hezbollah and affiliated rescuers said, with Hezbollah adding it had fired dozens of rockets in retaliation.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday condemned what he called "foreign vetoes and interference" in Lebanon’s presidential file, stressing that Hezbollah is keen on finalizing the presidential vote and that "dialogue is the only way."

“We are very keen on finalizing the domestic junctures and dialogue is the only way,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech commemorating the late Hezbollah-affiliated Shiite scholar Sheikh Ali Kourani.

French special envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, left Beirut on Thursday without having been able to convince the political parties to agree on electing a president.

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense, who met the main political actors including the powerful pro-Iranian Hezbollah, "did not make a major breakthrough", a French diplomatic source told AFP in Beirut .

Israel has not given a response to a French proposal to de-escalate tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border, French foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said.

Lemoine said the Lebanese response was "rather favorable" but Israel had still not not officially responded to the proposal.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has said that he does not expect peace between Israel and Hezbollah, but argued that boosting Lebanon’s economy and armed forces would decrease Iranian influence in country.

In an interview with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Hochstein added that a Lebanon-Israel land border agreement implemented in phases could curb the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah carried out Friday an aerial attack with suicide drones on Iron Dome launchpads in al-Za'oura in the occupied Golan Heights, in response to Israeli strikes on the southern border town of Houla.

The group also fired Friday "heavy-caliber Burkan rockets" at Israeli posts in northern Israel as Israeli artillery shelled the southern border town of al-Wazzani.