ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that Israel and Lebanon are nearing a "commitment of intent" as a fifth round of talks concluded, while Israel maintains it will only pull back its troops after Hezbollah’s disarmament.

"I think we are very close in our hopes of getting a commitment of intent between the two countries," Rubio told reporters in Bahrain during his ongoing tour of the Gulf.

"It'll be a process, it'll take some time, it'll take a lot of work, but I can tell you that for the first time in 30 years, the sovereign government of Lebanon is speaking to the government of Israel directly," he added.

The US-brokered talks began in April following the March 2 escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, under the backdrop of the US-Israeli war on Iran, which triggered a wave of Israeli strikes that, according to Lebanese authorities, have killed over 4,100 people and displaced one million. The latest round is set to end on Thursday.

Notwithstanding Rubio’s declarations and a nominal truce between Israel and Hezbollah being in effect, Lebanese state media reported Thursday that an Israeli strike in the southern part of the country killed three people and wounded another, marking the third lethal incident since the beginning of the fifth round of negotiations. The death toll for this week alone now stands at seven.

Also on Thursday, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told reporters, "We will not withdraw our forces from southern Lebanon as long as Hezbollah remains a threat, are not disarmed, and are not demilitarized."

Just a day earlier, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that the US had not requested that Israel retreat its troops, following a warning he issued Sunday on X that “Israel has no intention of withdrawing from the Beaufort,” even as Tehran maintains the pull-back is a non-negotiable demand for its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Washington.

Katz’s words echoed the belligerent statements of Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said on Monday, “We love Trump, but first and foremost Israel's soldiers, first our fighters, first our residents,” as he urged his far-right government to “attack Beirut.”

The US and Iran signed a MoU last Wednesday to end hostilities whose very first point calls for the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.

Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem claimed Tuesday his group had thwarted the “Greater Israel” project while calling for a full, timetabled withdrawal of Israeli forces from the country.

Israel’s onslaught has so far destroyed “11,095 buildings... impacting 17,891 housing units, while 2,242 buildings sustained partial damage... and 9,311 buildings incurred minor damage,“ the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Lebanon's National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) reported on Monday.

Following months of fighting with Hezbollah, Israel set the so-called “yellow line” extending roughly 4 to 10 kilometers inside Lebanese territory, from the Mediterranean coast to the Syrian border, designating at least 55 villages off-limits, barring Lebanese residents from returning as homes and infrastructure have been demolished to create a cleared, uninhabited buffer zone.