The body of a Lebanese journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike on southern Lebanon on Wednesday was pulled from under the rubble hours after the attack.

President Joseph Aoun’s comments on Wednesday came a day before a second meeting is scheduled to take place in Washington between the Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors.

The issue of the Israeli war against Lebanon remains a key topic in the U.S.-Iranian contacts and separating the Lebanese file from the Islamabad talks does not appear to be certain, informed sources told al-Akhbar newspaper.

Lebanese town official Sharif Badreddine begged his youngest son not to leave to fight for Hezbollah against Israel in the country's south, but as the tearful father buried his child he could not hide a sense of pride.

In the face of a government push to disarm the group, its supporters call on a long-held enmity with Israel, deep religious beliefs and backing from Iran to justify their sons' sacrifice in the group's latest war that has killed thousands in Lebanon.

Israeli strikes killed three people in Lebanon on Wednesday, Lebanese state media said, despite an ongoing 10-day ceasefire, which an official said Beirut will request an extension for in the upcoming talks with Israel in Washington.

Ahead of the talks on Thursday, Israel called on the Lebanese government to "work together" with it against Hezbollah.

A second French soldier died on Wednesday from wounds suffered in a weekend ambush against U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon blamed on Hezbollah, President Emmanuel Macron said.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon during its latest war with Hezbollah damaged or destroyed more than 62,000 housing units in the country, a government estimate found on Wednesday.

Hezbollah on Wednesday said it targeted an Israeli artillery position in the southern town of al-Bayyada with an attack drone, adding that a control room went up in flames.

President Joseph Aoun said Wednesday that the measures adopted by Cabinet must be "strictly enforced in Beirut," adding in a security meeting that "raids on locations containing weapons caches must be intensified."

Lebanese Civil Defense personnel in the southern border town of Rmeish on Wednesday provided first aid to a wounded Hezbollah fighter who had crawled to Ain Ebel from Bint Jbeil, the National News Agency said.