A senior Israeli official has told CBS News and other reporters that Israel is ready for a pause in the fighting in Gaza if it concretely assesses Hamas is serious about releasing hostages.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated U.S. support for humanitarian pauses in Israel's military operations in Gaza to address "urgent needs" on the ground.

Security forces in Brazil, in collaboration with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency and its partners within the Israeli security community, as well as other international security and law enforcement agencies, have successfully foiled a planned attack by Hezbollah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.

Israel and Hamas are on the verge of reaching a three-day ceasefire agreement, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported on Wednesday.

Egyptian sources meanwhile said that Cairo is about to achieve a humanitarian truce in Gaza involving the exchange of hostages and captives.

Israeli artillery shelling targeted Wednesday Ramia, Beit Leef, and the outskirts of the border towns of al-Labbouneh, al-Naqoura, Rmeish, Aita al-Shaab, Halta and al-Mari, after three rockets landed in Zarit and Shtula, in the Israeli upper western Galilee. Israel also shelled the outskirts of Mays al-Jabal, Blida, Houla, Mhaibib and Yaroun after the Israeli posts of al-Assi, al-Bayyad, Brket Risha, Yiftah, al-Jerdah and Dovev were targeted from Lebanon.

The football pitch in the border town of Houla was also targeted with three missiles, as Israel fired shells that didn't explode at a house and a car.

The U.S. has promised to convince Israel’s government to agree to a brief humanitarian truce in the war on Gaza and the discussions are now revolving around what can be done during the proposed pause, informed Palestinian sources quoted Arab and regional capitals as saying.

“The discussions are focusing on an incomplete exchange of civilian captives held by the resistance forces in Gaza in return for the entry of a large quantity of aid into Gaza, including fuel, and helping in addressing the file of those trapped under the rubble,” the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

The parliamentary bloc of the Free Patriotic Movement has reiterated its objection to the extension of the term of Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun ahead of his planned retirement in January, considering it "unconstitutional."

"There are legal solutions to avoid the vacancy," the Strong Lebanon bloc said in a statement Tuesday.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced Tuesday that Israel does not have "any intention to fight a war against Hezbollah."

He however warned that if Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah "commits a mistake" he will be "destroying Lebanon."

Hezbollah said Tuesday that it fired rockets at Israel's artillery positions in the occupied Golan Heights in response to an overnight Israeli strike on a Hezbollah post on the outskirts of the town of Aramta in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region.

Aramta lies about 20 kilometers north of the border and is a Hezbollah stronghold. The strike was one of the deepest inside Lebanon since the fighting along the border erupted on October 8.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein on Tuesday said "restoring calm on the southern border" of Lebanon with Israel is "of utmost importance to the United States."

"It should be the highest priority for both Lebanon and Israel," Hochstein urged after meeting Speaker Nabih Berri in Ain el-Tineh after he arrived in Lebanon on a surprise visit.

Israel bombed Tuesday al-Labbouneh, near the southern Lebanese town of Naqoura, and the outskirts of the southern towns of Mhaibib and Aitaroun, as two Iron Dome missiles landed in an open area in the outskirts of the town of al-Tiri in south Lebanon after a failed interception attempt.

Meanwhile, Israeli media said that Israeli residents of the Galilee Panhandle near Lebanon's border had been asked to stay near shelters over a suspected security incident.