Israel and Lebanon opened a new round of peace talks in Washington on Thursday as their latest ceasefire -- considered to still be in place despite hundreds of deaths in Israeli strikes -- nears its end.

The two sides started discussions just after 9 am (1300 GMT) at the State Department and will meet again on Friday.

Preliminary contacts and meetings intensified behind the scenes a few hours before the third round of Lebanese-Israeli talks in Washington, amid "clear U.S. pressure to push both sides toward tangible results," MTV reported on Thursday afternoon.

Israeli strikes targeted Thursday Sinay, Teffahta, Tebna, Froun, Siddiqine, Haddatha, Zrarieh, Brayke', Kfarmelki, Qsaybeh, Jarjou', Kfarseer, Kafra, Arnoun-Shqif, al-Mansouri, Srifa and other villages and towns in south Lebanon, despite a ceasefire and direct Lebanese-Israeli talks scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Washington.

In the east of the country, strikes hit Yohmor, Sohmor, Lebbaya, and Ein el-Tineh.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Hezbollah on Thursday of "bringing back" the Israeli occupation of South Lebanon. He said that the group's leader, Sheikh Naim Qassem, can take whatever stance he likes but cannot "obstruct" the direct negotiations with Israel.

Geagea added that Speaker Nabih Berri is similarly free to take any stance he wants, provided he does not cause obstruction. "Berri heads neither the executive power in Lebanon nor the deputies. When the results of the negotiations are sent to Parliament, he can offer his opinion as the head of a parliamentary bloc," Geagea said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has linked the success of the direct talks with Israel — which begin this Thursday in Washington — to the implementation of a "genuine" ceasefire.

"If a genuine ceasefire is not achieved, it means all is lost," Berri told ad-Diyar in remarks published Thursday.

Hezbollah lawmaker Ali Ammar reiterated Thursday his group's rejection of the direct talks, as Lebanon and Israel are to hold new peace talks in Washington starting Thursday.

Ammar said direct talks amount to "free concessions" to Israel.

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said Israel's strategy for Lebanon is to run two different tracks simultaneously — one of peace and one of war.

Ahead of direct talks Thursday between Lebanon and Israel in Washington, Leiter said there will be two Israeli tracks: one responsible for achieving peace and the other for dismantling Hezbollah.

A Hezbollah drone exploded inside Israel on Thursday, injuring three civilians, two of them severely, according to the Israeli military and hospitals.

The incident occurred ahead of a third round of direct talks between Israel and Lebanon in Washington, as the Trump administration pushes for a breakthrough between the two neighbors that have been in a state of war since Israel was created in 1948.

From her home in an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Anna Sloutskin yearns to expand her country's borders and one day move to southern Lebanon. And she is not alone.

With fighting between Israel and Hezbollah displacing more than a million Lebanese, a far-right fringe of Israel's settler movement is turning its gaze northwards.

Israel's military said it launched strikes against Hezbollah targets across southern Lebanon on Thursday, hours before U.S.-brokered talks between Lebanon and Israel were set to begin in Washington.

"The IDF has begun striking Hezbollah terror infrastructure sites in several areas in southern Lebanon," the military said after issuing evacuation warnings for a number of villages in south and east Lebanon.