US Mideast envoy Amos Hochstein said Wednesday he would travel to Israel to try to bring talks to secure a ceasefire with Hezbollah to a close after making “additional progress” in a second meeting with Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut, amid ongoing cross-border attacks on northern communities.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Hochstein’s schedule had not yet been finalized, though the Axios news site reported that the veteran envoy was set to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday morning.

Speaking after his second meeting with Berri, Hochstein said he saw a “real opportunity” to end the conflict after the Lebanese government and Hezbollah largely agreed to a US ceasefire proposal, although with some outstanding issues.

“The meeting today built on the meeting yesterday, and made additional progress,” Hochstein said. “So I will travel from here in a couple of hours to Israel to try to bring this to a close if we can.”

Hochstein added that he would work with the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump on truce efforts to end more than a year of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, noting that he has kept the transition team in the loop.

Hochstein was initially expected in Israel on Wednesday, after meeting with Lebanon’s leadership on Tuesday in talks that he described as “very productive.”

Instead, he remained in Lebanon to discuss the “technical details” of a ceasefire proposal with Berri, according to Lebanese media.

The efforts came as the Syrian state news agency reported that an unspecified number of people had been wounded in an Israeli attack on residential buildings and the industrial zone in central Syria’s Palmyra.

There was no immediate comment on the strike from the IDF.

Israel is believed to have carried out hundreds of strikes since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters, including from Hezbollah.

Since Hamas’s October 7 massacre last year, which saw some 1,200 people killed and 251 kidnapped, Israel has escalated its strikes on Iranian-backed terror targets in Syria and has also struck Syrian army air defenses and some Syrian forces.

Hochstein’s trip to the region came as fighting showed little sign of easing, with at least 70 rockets fired into northern Israel on Tuesday, an Israeli reservist killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon and a key Hezbollah commander killed in an Israeli airstrike.

Wednesday saw an apartment building in the largely evacuated northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona suffer a direct strike from a rocket fired from Lebanon. Photos and videos from the scene showed a hole blasted through the top story of a building.

There were no reports of casualties in the attack.

Earlier Wednesday morning, Hezbollah launched three drones from Lebanon at northern Israel, triggering sirens for 20 minutes in communities stretching from the Lebanon border down Israel’s coast to areas southeast of Haifa.

The IDF did not give details as to whether interception attempts were successful and how many of the drones crashed in northern Israel, though Hebrew media reported at least two impact sites.

Channel 12 news reported that parts of a drone were found in the Western Galilee town of Betzet, a few kilometers from the Lebanese border, while a second impact site was identified near Acre.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it fired suicide drone squadrons at military sites near Nahariya and Acre.

No injuries were reported in the incident.

A video online purported to show one of the drones flying unmolested in plain view near Haifa.

Across the border, meanwhile, the Lebanese army said Israeli fire killed a soldier, a day after it said three other personnel died in a strike on their position in south Lebanon.

A soldier “died of his wounds sustained due to the Israel army targeting of an army vehicle” near Qlayaa in south Lebanon, the Lebanese military said in a statement.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency reported that IDF troops were “attempting to advance from the Kfarshuba hills… to open up a new front under the cover of fire and artillery shells and air strikes.”

“Violent clashes are taking place” between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, the Lebanese report added.

The IDF said on Tuesday that it had expanded its deployment in southern Lebanon, sending troops toward areas where attacks have been launched against Kiryat Shmona.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said that US-led efforts for a truce between Israel and Hezbollah had created the chance for a lasting ceasefire, calling on both sides to accept a deal on the table.

“There is a window of opportunity that’s opening for a lasting ceasefire in Lebanon that would allow the return of those displaced, ensure the sovereignty of Lebanon and the security of Israel,” he told Europe 1 Radio. “I call on all sides with whom we are in close contact to seize this window.”

Speaking to the Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar TV channel, an official with the terror group said he was neither overly optimistic nor overly pessimistic about the prospects of a truce.

Mahmoud Qmati said that any deal must end fighting swiftly and preserve Lebanon’s sovereignty, an apparent reference to Israel’s stance that it must be able to resume strikes should the terror group threaten it again.

Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern Israeli towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, amid fears Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack, and increasing rocket fire by the terror group.

The attacks on northern Israel since October 2023 have resulted in the deaths of 44 civilians. In addition, 71 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.

Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.

Agencies contributed to this report.