Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday allocations of 13 billion shekels (more than $4.5 billion) to secure and develop northern communities along the Lebanon border, battered by weeks of fire from Iran-backed Hezbollah.

"The government made dramatic decisions today to strengthen the north. We are investing more than 13 billion shekels today, in addition to the seven billion we have already provided -- a total of 20 billion shekels going to the communities of the north," Netanyahu said following the government's approval of the measure.

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed five people, including a child, and wounded 48, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Those wounded in the strikes across the south included "a doctor and five employees of Tebnine Governmental Hospital, which sustained damage in yet another episode of the series of attacks carried out by the Israeli enemy against hospitals and health centers", the ministry said in a statement.

The Lebanese delegation to the Washington peace talks with Israel "sensed Israeli and U.S. acceptance regarding a comprehensive ceasefire, and the three parties presented proposals on specific ceasefire formulas," Baabda sources said on Tuesday.

"There is seriousness and a clear effort and interest from the U.S. in reaching a comprehensive ceasefire," the sources told MTV.

Israel and Lebanon could reach a peace agreement within days were it not for the obstacle posed by Hezbollah, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday, as the two sides began a fourth round of talks in Washington.

"Israel and Lebanon can do a peace deal tomorrow," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Hezbollah will not accept a "partial ceasefire" with Israel, a senior official from the Iran-backed group said Tuesday, refusing to halt attacks against northern Israel in exchange for Israel sparing Beirut's southern suburbs, although they appeared to have stopped on Tuesday.

In a south Lebanon hospital heavily damaged by deadly Israeli strikes nearby, Dr Nasser al-Masri held a new-born baby, calling him "a message of life and hope" despite the war.

Israel continued to strike southern Lebanon on Tuesday as Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked its troops there despite an apparent Washington-brokered de-escalation deal and a fourth round of U.S.-hosted talks between Lebanon and Israel.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam commented Tuesday on the resumption of Israeli-Lebanese negotiations in Washington by saying that "what remains is to consolidate a ceasefire throughout Lebanon."

The path of negotiation is "the least costly for the country, especially since wars throughout history have ended with a victor and a vanquished, or with negotiations to resolve the conflict," President Joseph Aoun said on Tuesday.

The Lebanese, Arab and international contacts that managed to avert an Israeli strike on Dahieh on Monday will contribute to a better atmosphere in today's talks between Israel and Lebanom in Washington, Baabda sources said on Tuesday.