The heads of the Israeli defense establishment on Wednesday presented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a number of technological solutions for the threat of Hezbollah's fiber-optic drones, the Israel Hayom newspaper said.

Direct contacts have taken place between Baabda Palace and Ain el-Tineh, and indirect contacts have been made with Hezbollah, through Speaker Nabih Berri, to persuade the Iran-backed group to agree to a ceasefire if Israel does in the Thursday-Friday talks in Washington, a media report said.

Saudi special envoy for Lebanon, Prince Yazid bin Farhan, intends to visit Beirut early next week to monitor political developments related to the Washington negotiations and the 'anticipated escalation of internal and regional disputes and pressures," al-Akhbar newspaper reported.

The head of the Lebanese delegation to the talks with Israel, Ambassador Simon Karam, has requested that U.S. State Department officials not open the scheduled negotiations on Thursday and Friday to the press, preferring to keep the deliberations behind closed doors, without statements or press conferences after the meetings, media reports said.

President Joseph Aoun expressed "deep concern" following the latest Israeli ground incursion north of the Litani River and made "direct contact with senior officials in the U.S. administration, as well as with the Lebanese ambassador to Washington, Nada Moawad, with the aim of pressuring Israel and compelling it to establish a ceasefire before any negotiations can begin," media reports said.

In an unprecedented diplomatic move, Lebanon has filed a formal complaint with the U.N. against Iran, accusing Tehran of violating the Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations, interfering in Lebanese sovereign affairs, and embroiling the country in a devastating war against its will, Independent Arabia reported.

Lebanon's Simon Karam and Israel's Yechiel Leiter, both political veterans with entrenched views, will come face to face in Washington for talks Thursday after decades in a state of war.

Lebanon and Israel have no formal ties, but U.S. President Donald Trump is hoping for a historic breakthrough even as Israeli forces remain deployed in south Lebanon to fight Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Israeli strikes targeted Wednesday seven cars, three of them on a major highway linking Beirut to southern Lebanon, killing 8 people, including 2 children.

The attacks on the coastal highway south of Beirut took place in Jiyeh, Barja and Saadiyat. On Saturday, two similar strikes targeted two cars on the same highway, despite a truce reached on April 16.

Health Minister Rakan Nassereddine told a press conference on Tuesday that since the ceasefire, "380 people have been killed and 1,122 wounded". That toll includes 39 women and 22 children.

Nassereddine decried a "systematic, ongoing attack on civilians", and described the ceasefire as "fragile and ineffective".

Hezbollah launched Tuesday a massive drone swarm attack on north Israel, Israeli media said, adding that it is the first time multiple drones target a single target inside Israel.

An Israeli security source described the attack as the most significant drone attack on Israel to date.