German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he supports direct peace talks between the Israeli and Lebanese governments, which are set to start Tuesday in Washington.

Merz called for an end to hostilities in southern Lebanon and said militant group Hezbollah must lay down its arms, the German chancellery said in a statement Monday night.

From his small shop in Beirut, facing a building destroyed by an Israeli airstrike, Qassem Saad said he was exhausted by repeated Israeli wars on Lebanon, and hoped negotiations could end decades of suffering.

"We know that Israel will remain an enemy to us, but we are tired," 49-year-old Saad, who suffered a minor injury in the strike, told AFP.

Lebanese and Israeli representatives are scheduled to meet in Washington Tuesday for U.S.-mediated talks on ending the war in Lebanon, but the prospects of an agreement appear slim.

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem called for the talks to be scrapped before they even began, describing them as "futile."

The Israeli military said Tuesday that a soldier had been killed in Lebanon, the first since a U.S.-Iran temporary truce came into force that Israel insisted does not include the country where it is fighting Hezbollah.

"Sergeant Major (Res.) Ayal Uriel Bianco, aged 30, from Katzrin, a firefighting vehicle driver in the 188th Brigade, fell during combat in southern Lebanon," the Israeli military said in a statement, later adding that overnight clashes between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah militants left 10 soldiers wounded in the strategically significant southern Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, which Israeli forces have encircled.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem on Monday urged the Lebanese state to cancel a planned meeting with Israel in Washington the following day, reiterating his group's rejection of direct negotiations with Israel.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday a ceasefire between the United States and Iran was "holding" and that efforts were underway to reach an agreement after weekend talks failed to do so.

The Israeli military said on Monday its troops had completely surrounded a key town in southern Lebanon after killing more than 100 Hezbollah fighters there over the past week.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said Sunday he was working to stop the Israel-Hezbollah war, even as Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu told troops in south Lebanon that the fight there was far from over.

The Lebanese Red Cross said in a statement that one of its paramedics had been killed in the south.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israeli forces had eliminated the threat of an invasion by Hezbollah fighters during an alleged visit to troops in southern Lebanon.

His reported visit comes two days before officials from Lebanon, Israel and the United States are due to hold direct talks in Washington.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Sunday he does not care if Iran comes back to negotiations with the United States after talks in Pakistan failed to produce a deal.

"I don't care if they come back or not. If they don't come back, I'm fine," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, upon his return from Florida.