President Joseph Aoun has contacted the U.S. administration to find a solution for the strategic Ali Taher hill, in order to prevent any escalation of the situation, Qatar’s al-Araby al-Jadeed news portal reported.

The Israeli army targeted multiple towns across southern Lebanon overnight into Wednesday, including Hadatha, al-Qantara, al-Mansouri, Ali al-Taher, and Kfar Remman.

Israeli forces were also burning, bulldozing and detonating lands and houses in Bouyout al-Siyed, Majdalzoun, Serbine, Bani Hayan, al-Khiam and Markaba.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have not stopped because Hezbollah has not surrendered its weapons, American Ambassador Michel Issa said Wednesday as he visited Dar al-Fatwa.

"Hezbollah does not want to do anything, so why do we ask Israel to do everything? Why do you only ask Israel to withdraw, and you don't ask Hezbollah to disarm?" he asked after he met Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian.

Lebanese authorities have granted former Iranian ambassador Mohammad Reza Sheibani a six-month legal residency permit in Lebanon as an "Iranian citizen, not a diplomat," months after the Lebanese Foreign Ministry declared Sheibani persona non grata and demanded his departure from the country within 72 hours, an announcement that he defied with backing from Hezbollah and the Amal Movement.

A security source told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that General Security chief Hassan Shqeir “proposed granting him residency, based on the legal powers that authorize him to do so, and informed the relevant political authorities (the president, the PM and interior minister) before signing the residency permit.”

An Israeli military source on Monday criticized the Lebanese Army’s performance in the so-called pilot zones in south Lebanon, noting that “it has not entered private property” there and that its search operations are “partial.”

President Joseph Aoun noted Monday that the Prophet’s Birthday holiday comes this year “as Lebanon faces grave challenges, from repeated Israeli attacks against its sovereignty, land and sons in the South and the various regions, to economic and living crises that are still burdening its citizens.”

The current Israeli movements, detonations, strikes and shelling "appear to be a prelude to a military operation" in south Lebanon, given that the strikes "are targeting all the high ground surrounding the Ali al-Taher hill, especially the al-Dabsheh hill and the al-Tahra hill, two hills that were under Israeli control before the Israeli army withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000, security sources in south Lebanon said.

The surprising stance of Hezbollah political council member Mahmoud Qmati that the party has not definitively closed the door to direct communication with the Americans, and that the decision will be made according to interests and appropriate circumstances, has raised questions among Hezbollah’s adversaries and allies alike, a media report said.

MP Ali Fayyad, a member of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, on Monday pointed out that "it is clear the Americans are pressuring the Lebanese authorities to tighten the noose around Hezbollah and its institutions, even to the point of confrontation.”

The Lebanese Army has outlined its conditions for any future international verification mechanism in south Lebanon, expressing its openness to a technically independent entity, provided that its operations on the ground be conducted in conjunction with the army and under its sovereign authority, al-Binaa newspaper reported on Monday.