President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that direct negotiations with Israel were crucial, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel and an upcoming meeting between their leaders.

"Direct negotiations are crucial... and a ceasefire is the gateway to proceeding with negotiations," Aoun said in a statement shared by the presidency, reiterating that Beirut's goal was to "consolidate a ceasefire, secure the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied southern territories, recover prisoners, and address outstanding border disputes".

Moscow on Friday backed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon and said it hoped the pause in fighting could pave the way for a longer-term agreement, as the fragile 10-day truce took hold.

"We certainly welcome the decision on a truce and hope that in these few days it will indeed be possible to reach agreements that will prevent a repeat of the military clashes," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, in response to a question by AFP.

Israel's defense minister said on Friday that the campaign against the militant group Hezbollah was not yet complete, just hours after a 10-day ceasefire came into force in Lebanon.

"The ground maneuver into Lebanon and the strikes on Hezbollah have achieved many gains, but they are still not complete," Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a broadcast statement.

Israeli strikes on Tyre in southern Lebanon killed at least 13 people just before the 10-day ceasefire with Israel took effect at midnight, a city official said on Friday.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said another 35 people were injured, and emergency workers were still searching the rubble for another "15 missing".

A fragile calm settled over parts of Lebanon on Friday as a 10-day ceasefire brokered by the United States took hold between Israel and Hezbollah, prompting thousands of displaced families to begin the journey home — even as uncertainty, destruction and Israeli warnings against going back to parts of southern Lebanon clouded their return.

By early morning, cars were backed up for kilometers on the route leading south to the damaged Qasmiyeh bridge over the Litani River, a key crossing linking the southern coastal city of Tyre to the north. Vehicles piled high with mattresses, suitcases and salvaged belongings crept forward through a single reopened lane, hastily repaired after an Israeli airstrike just a day earlier.

Tom Barrack, the U.S. special envoy to Syria and ambassador to Turkey, told a diplomacy conference Friday that the “brilliance” of the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire in Lebanon was that it ended “senseless killing.”

“The brilliance of what happened yesterday is it stopped senseless killing and President Trump and Secretary Rubio stepping in strongly and saying we need a time out,” Barrack said at the conference in Antalya, southern Turkey.

Hezbollah said Friday that it was keeping its "finger on the trigger" in case of any Israeli violations of a ceasefire that went into effect overnight.

In a statement, the Iran-backed movement said it had carried out "2,184 military operations" against Israel and its troops inside Lebanon, adding: "The fighters will keep their finger on the trigger because they are wary of the enemy's treachery."

Iran's foreign ministry welcomed on Thursday the truce agreed between Israel and Lebanon, calling it part of the earlier two-week ceasefire deal struck between the Islamic republic and the United States to pause the Middle East war, state media reported.

Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei "welcomed the announcement of the ceasefire in Lebanon and noted that the cessation of the war in Lebanon was part of the ceasefire understanding between Iran and the United States, mediated by Pakistan", state news agency IRNA posted on Telegram.

A ten-day ceasefire deal agreed between Lebanon and Israel took effect on Friday, as U.S. President Donald Trump said he was trying to set up the first-ever face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two countries.

The truce comes as Washington steps up efforts to reach a deal to end the war with Iran, with Tehran insisting a Lebanon truce must be part of any agreement.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said he was concerned that a ceasefire between militant group Hezbollah and Israel "may already be undermined by ongoing military operations."

"I call for the safety of civilians on both sides of the border between Lebanon and Israel," he said on X. "Hezbollah must lay down its arms. Israel must respect Lebanese sovereignty and end the war," he added.