The U.S. wants “the interest of the Shiite community and the return of residents to the South and their homes,” U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa said on Tuesday after a visit to the Higher Islamic Shiite Council and a meeting with its head Sheikh Ali al-Khatib.

Speaking in Arabic, Issa added that Washington is willing to negotiate with Hezbollah “through the state,” adding that “the state is the side that works for the sake of Lebanon.”

The house of MP Melhem al-Hujeiri, a member of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc, came under gunfire at dawn in the northeastern town of Arsal, media reports said.

Israel conducted a wave of airstrikes in south Lebanon, killing 13 people including women and children, the Lebanese health ministry said on Monday, in an intensification of violence after a weeks-long lull.

Israel's military vowed to continue targeting Hezbollah, accusing the Iran-backed militants of repeated violations of a ceasefire in place since June.

In an effort to contain the current escalation in the Nabatieh region, contacts took place between Lebanon and the U.S., during which Washington informed the Lebanese state that it is “doing everything in its power to keep the situation under control and prevent it from sliding into a full-blown war,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper said on Monday.

The daily also learned that Baabda Palace is expected to be informed this week by the American side of the date for the Rome negotiations, which Washington insists on resuming, especially after “the success of U.S. Ambassador Michel Issa in persuading Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to release a number of captives, which gives positive indications of the possibility of continuing the negotiation process.”

The Israeli army said Monday that two of its soldiers were lightly wounded in a face-to-face clash with a Hezbollah fighter during search operations in the al-Shakif area of south Lebanon.

“A Hezbollah terrorist inside a building opened fire on the forces” and “the forces immediately returned fire, killing the terrorist,” the Israeli army said.

Israel’s military said Monday it was committed to the ceasefire but would continue to "remove threats" from Hezbollah, after Lebanese state media reported overnight strikes killed 11 people.

There’s only one month left to apply for the UK Government’s flagship Chevening Scholarships program for the scholastic year 27-28.

President Joseph Aoun declared Monday that "Israel's repeated attacks, the killing of innocents, including children and women, the destruction and burning of homes, and the bulldozing of property are condemned, rejected, and unjustified crimes.”

“These actions target the framework agreement and undermine all efforts to halt the escalation in the South and the region as a whole," warned Aoun in a meeting with French Justice Minister Gérard Darmanin in the presence of Lebanese Justice Minister Adel Nassar.

Israeli warplanes on Monday carried out a fresh wave of strikes on the southern town of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, after Israeli strikes in the Nabatieh region killed 18 people over the past 36 hours.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has responded to criticism from Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea as to perceived sidelining of Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji by saying that “the constitution stipulates that the Council of Ministers is the one that sets the government’s general policy in all fields, including foreign policy, while each minister is responsible for managing the affairs of their ministry and implementing this policy within their powers.”

“Hence, the foreign policy of the Lebanese state is not the policy of a person or ministry in isolation from the government,” Salam noted.