U.S. President Donald Trump “has said that he would be willing to talk to Hezbollah if it would lead to an end of conflict, or peace,” Ed Gabriel, the head of the American Task Force on Lebanon, said.

Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri has emphasized the importance of UNIFIL forces' presence in southern Lebanon and their assigned role, both in “maintaining security in the south and in supporting the Lebanese Army's deployment across all Lebanese territory up to the international border, as stipulated in Resolution 1701.”

If Lebanon and Israel fail to agree on a new pilot zone in south Lebanon, Washington will designate the aforementioned zone, U.S. General Joseph Clearfield told Lebanese officials during his latest visit to Beirut, according to a senior Lebanese official.

Israeli strikes and shelling targeted overnight into Thursday Houla, Markaba, Wadi Slouqi, Qabrikha, al-Mansouri, Majdalzoun, Ali al-Taher and Touline, as troops carried out detonations in Zawtar al-Sahrqiyeh, Majdalzoun, al-Mansouri and al-Khiam.

The United Nations peacekeeping force in south Lebanon handed meanwhile one of its positions near al-Khardali to the Lebanese Army.

President Joseph Aoun met Thursday with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican and thanked him for his efforts to support Lebanon in resisting Israeli aggression and securing the liberation of its territory.

Aoun urged the Pope to compel Israel to commit to the U.S.-brokered Framework Agreement, halt its daily strikes, and withdraw from the territories its forces are occupying in south Lebanon.

An Emirati delegation comprising approximately 70 businessmen will visit Lebanon on August 26 and 27 to sign agreements with the private sector in Lebanon, LBCI television has reported.

The delegation will also propose providing and developing services at the airport, ports, and border crossings.

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.