The head of the Lebanese delegation to the talks with Israel, Ambassador Simon Karam, has requested that U.S. State Department officials not open the scheduled negotiations on Thursday and Friday to the press, preferring to keep the deliberations behind closed doors, without statements or press conferences after the meetings, media reports said.

Meanwhile, the Lebanese embassy in Washington is expected to have finalized a dossier that Karam and the Lebanese delegation will take to the negotiations. This dossier includes documentation of Israeli violations on the ground, maps illustrating the occupied areas, and figures and data related to destruction and land confiscation operations, as well as the number of civilian casualties.

President Joseph Aoun expressed "deep concern" following the latest Israeli ground incursion north of the Litani River and made "direct contact with senior officials in the U.S. administration, as well as with the Lebanese ambassador to Washington, Nada Moawad, with the aim of pressuring Israel and compelling it to establish a ceasefire before any negotiations can begin," media reports said.

Lebanon has responded to Iranian letters sent to the U.N., accusing Tehran of violating the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, interfering in Lebanese sovereign affairs, and embroiling the country in a devastating war against its will.

Independent Arabia had earlier reported that Lebanon had filed a U.N. complaint against Iran. But the Lebanese Foreign Ministry clarified Wednesday evening that it has not complained against Iran but rather responded to Iranian letters sent to the organization.

Lebanon's Simon Karam and Israel's Yechiel Leiter, both political veterans with entrenched views, will come face to face in Washington for talks Thursday after decades in a state of war.

Lebanon and Israel have no formal ties, but U.S. President Donald Trump is hoping for a historic breakthrough even as Israeli forces remain deployed in south Lebanon to fight Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes targeted Wednesday seven cars, three of them on a major highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon, killing 8 people, including 2 children.

The attacks on the coastal highway south of Beirut took place in Jiyeh, Barja and Saadiyat. On Saturday, two similar strikes targeted two cars on the same highway, despite a truce reached on April 16.

Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told a press conference on Tuesday that since the ceasefire, "380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded". That toll includes 39 women and 22 children.

Nassereddine decried a "systematic, ongoing attack on civilians", and described the ceasefire as "fragile and ineffective".

Hezbollah launched Tuesday a massive drone swarm attack on north Israel, Israeli media said, adding that it is the first time multiple drones target a single target inside Israel.

An Israeli security source described the attack as the most significant drone attack on Israel to date.

Israeli strikes targeted Wednesday three cars on a major highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon, killing 8 people, including a woman and her two children, ahead of talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington.

The attacks took place in Jiyeh, Barja and Saadiyat. On Saturday, two similar strikes targeted two cars on the same highway, despite a truce reached on April 16.

Strikes targeted Tuesday afternoon al-Henniyyeh, Kherbet Selem, Qsaybeh, Harees, Tayrdebba, and Ras al-Ain south of Tyre, while Hezbollah claimed drone attacks on a soldier and a Merkava tank in north Israel near the border with Houla.

The Israeli army renewed its warning to four villages in south Lebanon -- Arzoun, Tayrdebba, Bazourieh and al-Hosh.

Amid preparations for the third round of Lebanese-Israeli negotiations in Washington, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam clarified that "at the top of our agenda is solidifying the ceasefire."