Hezbollah supports efforts aimed at achieving a ceasefire in Lebanon, its top official said on Tuesday, marking the first time the group has publicly endorsed a truce and not conditioned it to stopping the war in Gaza.

Hezbollah officials are no longer demanding a truce in Gaza as a condition for reaching a ceasefire in Lebanon, rowing back from an oft-repeated promise to keep fighting until Israel halts its offensive against Hezbollah's Iran-backed ally Hamas.

Two Hezbollah commanders were killed in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces said Thursday.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that it has begun "a targeted and demarcated ground operation" in southern Lebanon, where it claimed Hezbollah militants and infrastructure were located.

Israeli forces look to have conducted yet another targeted strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon’s capital Beirut and have expanded their ground incursions in the southern end of that country. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also say they shot down a ballistic missile headed toward the center of the country today,

Israel has invaded southern Lebanon in a dramatic escalation of its conflict with Hezbollah. The Israeli ground operation began on 30 September, days after an air strike killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed armed group.