Israel army says killed deputy head of elite Hezbollah force

The Israeli army said on Wednesday it had killed the deputy head of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force, Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, in a strike in the Nabatieh area of south Lebanon.

"In an intelligence-directed strike, the Israeli air force struck and eliminated Mustafa Ahmad Shahadi, deputy commander of Hezbollah's Radwan Forces, in the area of Nabatieh," the army said in a statement, adding that Shahadi had previously run Radwan operations in Syria and overseen "terror attacks in southern Lebanon".

Meanwhile, Strikes rocked the eastern Lebanese city of Baalbek and its outskirts on Wednesday, an AFP correspondent reported, hours after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area.

Baalbek mayor Mustafa al-Shall confirmed strikes hit the city and surrounding areas, without providing further details.

US working on 60-day truce to end war in Lebanon, sources say

U.S. mediators are working on a proposal to halt hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, starting with a 60-day ceasefire, two sources said on Wednesday.

The sources - a person briefed on the talks and a senior diplomat working on Lebanon - told Reuters the two-month period would be used to finalise full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006 to keep southern Lebanon free of arms outside state control.

A U.S. official said White House officials Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein will visit Israel on Thursday to engage on a range of issues "including Gaza, Lebanon, hostages, Iran and broader regional matters."

Israeli strikes on south Lebanon's Sarafand killed at least 10 people on Tuesday - most of them women and children - while a separate strike on the port city of Sidon killed at least five people and injured 37, Lebanese authorities said.

(With additional input from Reuters)