Pope Leo XIV expressed his closeness to the people of Lebanon on Sunday, saying there was a "moral obligation" to protect them while calling on warring parties to seek peace.

Lebanese authorities said on Saturday that Israeli strikes have killed 2,020 people since the start of the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah last month.

Israeli strikes on a village near Sidon in south Lebanon on Saturday killed eight people and wounded nine others, five of them seriously, the Lebanese health ministry said.

Hezbollah denied on Sunday any link to a cell accused by Syrian authorities of planning an attack on a religious figure in Damascus, saying it conducts no activity in the country.

Ali Akbar Velayati, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said on X that Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam "should know that ignoring the unique role of the resistance and the heroic Hezbollah will expose Lebanon to irreparable security risks."

"Lebanon's stability rests exclusively on cohesion between the government and the resistance," he said.

The Lebanese National News Agency reported multiple Israeli strikes early Saturday in southern Lebanon, killing at least three people.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah on Saturday reiterated his group's rejection of direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, where authorities reported 10 people killed in Israeli attacks in the south.

Israel said Friday it will not discuss a ceasefire with Hezbollah when it holds talks with Lebanon's government next week in Washington.

An Israeli strike, one of multiple on the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on Friday, killed 13 State Security personnel, the agency said, as Lebanon prepared to start ceasefire talks with Israel.

The Israeli military said Friday that airstrikes it carried out in Lebanon two days earlier killed more than 180 Hezbollah militants.