Iran has become more open and positive towards the Saudi role in Lebanon, viewing it as a stabilizing factor, diplomatic sources told Al-Jadeed TV.

Tuesday's talks between Lebanon and Israel will be "open and direct, not merely technical or formal, and will address the security of Israel's northern border," U.S. State Department sources told MTV.

Lebanon and Israel are set to hold the first direct diplomatic talks in decades on Tuesday in Washington following more than a month of war between Israel and the Hezbollah militant group that has rocked the tiny Mediterranean country.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take part in the talks in Washington with Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad.

French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot reaffirmed Tuesday that Lebanon must be included in the initial ceasefire agreement.

"The ceasefire must absolutely include Lebanon, which under no circumstances can be the scapegoat of the Israeli government," Barrot said on French radio RFI.

Israel's military said Monday that a massive wave of strikes in Lebanon last week killed five Hezbollah commanders, as well as more than 250 of the group's fighters.

The Lebanese health ministry has said Wednesday's attacks killed more than 350 people in total and wounded more than 1,200.

Israel summoned Italy's ambassador Monday to protest after Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani condemned Israel's "unacceptable attacks" on civilians in Lebanon during a visit to Beirut, an Italian diplomatic source said.

Tajani, a senior member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, visited Beirut on Monday for talks with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji.

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.