Israel 'cannot set conditions' for truce: Hezbollah

Hezbollah's leader delivered a defiant speech, on Wednesday, saying Israel cannot impose conditions for a truce in Lebanon, as visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein headed to Israel to try to negotiate an end to the war.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, in a near-simultaneous statement, said any cease-fire deal must ensure Israel still has the "freedom to act" against Hezbollah.

Hochstein said in Beirut that he would head to Israel, on Wednesday, to try to seal a ceasefire agreement in the war in Lebanon, which escalated in late September after nearly a year of deadly exchanges of fire across Israel's northern border.

Israel has vowed to secure the north and allow tens of thousands of people displaced by the cross-border hostilities to return home.

Israel has also sent ground troops into southern Lebanon, where it said, on Wednesday, three soldiers had been killed -bringing the total fallen to 52 since the start of ground operations.