President Joseph Aoun on Monday welcomed a parliamentary initiative and petition calling for the extension of the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

"The presence of UNIFIL in the south is important in many respects. It helps to keep residents in their villages and towns and strengthens stability through cooperation and coordination with the Lebanese Army," Aoun said.

Strikes and shelling targeted the southern border towns of al-Mansouri, Aitaroun and Bani Hayyan on Monday as Israeli troops opened heavy machine gun fire towards several southern towns, including Hadatha and al-Khiam.

An overnight strike targeted Wadi al-Hujeir, while artillery shelled on Sunday night Beit Yahoun and Hadatha.

A U.S. State Department spokesperson has said that Hezbollah "bears sole responsibility for Israel's presence on Lebanese soil," following the latest deadly Israeli strikes in south Lebanon.

"This is precisely why Hezbollah must be disarmed and dismantled," the spokesperson said.

Israel vowed Sunday it would hit Hezbollah again if threatened, as it identified what it described as a commander killed in strikes a day earlier that also left several children dead.

Israeli strikes on Saturday killed 11 people in southern Lebanon, according to authorities, in the deadliest attacks since a deal was reached in June aimed at ending hostilities.

The office of Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday that Hezbollah violated the ceasefire by attacking Israeli soldiers in the Ali al-Taher area in south Lebanon, seriously wounding three of them.

It said the Israeli military responded by striking the Hezbollah headquarters which allegedly ordered the attack, learning only later that Hezbollah “deliberately put civilians” in that military compound.

Israel wants new and more ambitious U.S.-brokered talks with Lebanon after carrying out deadly strikes targeting Hezbollah, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.

The Israeli military said on Saturday that its strike on the Lebanese village of Ansar, where authorities reported seven people killed including children, targeted a Hezbollah commander.

Hezbollah said that Israeli attacks on Lebanon would be met with an "appropriate" response after deadly strikes on the country's south on Saturday, urging authorities to halt "humiliating" negotiations with Israel.

Speaker Nabih Berri noted Saturday that "the two massacres perpetrated by the Israeli occupation aircraft in the towns of Ansar and Deir al-Zahrani, which resulted in the martyrdom of an entire family, mostly women and children, fall within the context of the ongoing genocidal war waged by the Israeli killing and destruction machine against the land, people, heritage, and everything connected to human life in the South."

President Joseph Aoun said deadly Israeli strikes on the country's south on Saturday were a "clear message" on negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, ahead of the next round of U.S.-sponsored talks early next month in Rome.

Aoun condemned the "ongoing Israeli attacks" on the south and "repeated violations of the framework agreement... and international law on protecting civilians, which led to the death of an entire family in the village of Ansar," according to a statement from his office, adding that "these violations are a clear message against the negotiation process and the U.S. efforts aimed at implementing this agreement."