Hezbollah proposed earlier this week to hand over the strategic Ali al-Taher area to the Lebanese Army, amid “the decline of its ability to hold onto it and its attempt to withdraw the fighters and equipment that are present there,” an informed Western diplomatic source said.

“This information gains significance when compared to the situation approximately two months ago, when the Lebanese Army offered to take control of the Ali al-Taher area. However, Hezbollah refused at the time, even threatening to target any force entering the area,” the source told LBCI television.

Syria's interior ministry said authorities took custody of a former general under deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad who was extradited from Lebanon on Wednesday and is accused of crimes including murder and torture.

"Today, Syrian authorities received from the Lebanese authorities the former officer in the defunct regime army, major general Adel Issa," a ministry statement said, after Syria issued an arrest warrant in absentia for him.

A Canadian government official condemned what he called Israel's "unlawful invasion" of Lebanon, saying Beirut should govern its own space and have sovereignty over its lands.

Randeep Sarai, Canada's secretary of state for international development, visited Lebanon to announce new humanitarian aid to the crisis-hit country, where the U.N. says some 360,000 people remain displaced as a result of the latest conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Israeli informed U.S. General Joseph Clearfield of its rejection of any agreement on a new pilot zone in south Lebanon, Lebanese sources involved in the deliberations said.

Speaker Nabih Berri noted Wednesday that "what the South is experiencing is intolerable and may even surpass the crimes and massacres perpetrated in Gaza.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil has called for a public parliamentary session to question the government regarding the war, Hezbollah's weapons, and the U.S.-sponsored framework agreement with Israel.

Bassil urged Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to schedule a public session to question the government and demanded transparency regarding the framework agreement.

President Joseph Aoun has received an invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron to participate in a preparatory meeting for an international conference to support the Lebanese Army.

The meeting will be held in Paris on September 17 with the participation of military delegations and experts from several countries.

The Israeli army struck and shelled overnight into Wednesday al-Khiam, Mays al-Jabal, the Ali al-Taher hill, the outskirts of Wadi Zebqine and a house in Nabatieh al-Fawqa.

Israeli forces also carried detonations in Hadatha, al-Khiam and al-Mansouri.

The Israeli military said it had repatriated the remains of Sgt First Class Yehuda Katz, a soldier killed in Lebanon 44 years ago, in a joint operation with the Mossad intelligence agency.

Katz was the last Israeli soldier declared missing in the Sultan Yacoub battle against Syrian forces in eastern Lebanon in 1982.

President Joseph Aoun will head to Rome this week for talks focusing on the future of the United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, whose mandate ends this year, a Lebanese official told AFP.

The visit scheduled for Thursday comes after Italy and France said in June that they wanted to set up a multinational coalition to succeed the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).