Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday told visiting U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein that “the government’s priority is reaching a ceasefire, ending the aggression against Lebanon and preserving Lebanese sovereignty across all Lebanese territory.”

Hezbollah swiftly announced the postponement of its chief Sheikh Naim Qassem's speech after saying in a previous statement that he would give a speech on Tuesday.

The statement and the postponement came as U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein visited Beirut seeking an end to the Israel-Hezbollah war.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein said he was in Beirut on Tuesday because he saw "a real opportunity" to end the Israel-Hezbollah war raging for two months after nearly a year of clashes.

U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein will leave Washington to Beirut shortly, a U.S. official told U.S. news portal Axios on Monday evening.

U.S. officials had earlier told Axios that Hochstein had informed Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri that he was delaying his departure to Beirut until getting “more clarifications” about the Lebanese position regarding the cease-fire agreement.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has said that “U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein will visit Lebanon soon” and that “the ambiguous files will be resolved face to face.”

U.S. optimism on reaching a Lebanese-Israel ceasefire deal has reached its highest level in a year, a Lebanese government source told Al-Jazeera on Monday.

The European Union “continues to mobilize all the tools at its disposal to support the people affected by the ongoing conflict in Lebanon,” the EU Delegation to Lebanon said.

An Israeli airstrike hit a computer shop in central Beirut's Mar Elias area on Sunday evening, killing two people and wounding 13, the Health Ministry said.

Al-Arabiya television identified the target of the strike as "Hezbollah military commander Mahmoud Madi," saying the computer shop is owned by his brother.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein will visit Beirut on Tuesday and Israel on Wednesday as part of his efforts to push the ceasefire deal forward and amid reported progress in the negotiations, media reports said.

Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif was killed Sunday in a rare Israeli airstrike targeting the center of the capital Beirut -- outside Hezbollah's traditional strongholds of Dahieh, the south and the Bekaa, a Hezbollah official said.

The strike -- in the Ras al-Nabaa area near Sodeco Square -- targeted a building containing the headquarters of the Lebanese branch of the Baath Party that rules Syria. A Baath member who survived the strike said the building also contained an apartment housing displaced Lebanese.