Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told CNN on Friday that the Lebanese people are fed up with the war with Israel.

He said Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem does not represent the Lebanese people. "These people are not yours," Aoun told Qassem, as he accused Iran of using Lebanon as a "bargaining chip" in its conflict with the U.S. and Israel.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday urged Iran to stop treating his country, where Israel and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah are at war, as a "bargaining chip" in its negotiations with Washington on the Middle East conflict.

"If I may address a word to Iran, it is this: have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations," Salam told a press conference for a U.N. aid appeal for Lebanon.

U.S. President Donald Trump told journalists in a press conference that he thinks "progress is made" in the Lebanese-Israeli conflict.

"It would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace," Trump said. "Lebanon has been under attack for so many years and always like an underdog, and it would be really nice if it could end," he added.

Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and West Bekaa killed eight people and wounded 15 others on Thursday, hours after a new ceasefire was announced between Lebanon and Israel, the Health Ministry said.

An Israeli strike in on Sohmor in West Bekaa killed five people, while another attack near the southern city of Tyre killed three more, the ministry said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday criticized both the Lebanese state led by President Joseph Aoun and PM Nawaf Salam, and his former ally Hezbollah.

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension, but the achievement of justice. This is a phrase coined by Martin Luther King Jr. and ignored by many, especially those who believe in imposing peace by force," Bassil said.

The Israeli foreign ministry said Thursday that Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem's "rejection of the ceasefire" and "rocket interceptions over Kiryat Shmona" tell "the story: Hezbollah continues to attack Israel and destabilize the region."

"The Iranian proxy Hezbollah must be disarmed and its terrorist infrastructure in southern Lebanon must be dismantled according to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701," the ministry added, in an English-language post on X.

U.S. officials followed Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem's defiant remarks on Thursday and "we judge actions not words," U.S. sources told LBCI television.

"This agreement resembles a last chance and wasting it means that everyone will pay a heavy price," the sources said of the overnight ceasefire agreement that was reached between Lebanon and Israel.

The Israeli government announced on Thursday that negotiations with Lebanon in Washington had achieved what it described as an "unprecedented accomplishment," noting that they removed Hezbollah from the equation.

Israel's government added that the negotiations were still ongoing with the aim of reaching a "permanent ceasefire."

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Thursday that the army would begin deploying in "pilot zones" in the country's south, a day after Israel and Lebanon agreed in Washington to implement a ceasefire.

"The next step is practical and tangible: the deployment of the Lebanese army in pilot zones as a first phase," Salam said, according to remarks read out by Information Minister Paul Morcos after a cabinet meeting, adding that "this does not prejudice our right to a full (Israeli) withdrawal, but brings us closer to it."

Hezbollah on Thursday rejected the latest ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and the Lebanese government, demanding a complete Israeli withdrawal.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem, in a written statement read on TV, said the agreement's demand that Hezbollah fighters leave southern Lebanon under fire would mean "surrender, defeat and achieving the enemy's goals."