During a meeting with members of the Lebanese expat community in Michigan, U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein promised U.S. help in rebuilding the destroyed villages in south Lebanon, a media report said.

“Should the negotiations related to Resolution 1701 succeed and if a president who can guarantee stability is elected, the region will witness a period of economic prosperity,” Hochstein said, according to the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper.

The lawyer for the Lebanese-New Jersey man charged with stabbing author Salman Rushdie is in talks with county and federal prosecutors to try to resolve existing charges of attempted murder without a trial — as well as potential terrorism-related charges that could still be coming, he said.

Hadi Matar, 26, has been held without bail since his 2022 arrest, immediately after allegedly attacking the internationally acclaimed writer in front of a stunned audience he was about to address at the Chautauqua Institution in western New York. Rushdie was blinded in one eye, and moderator Henry Reese also was wounded.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Monday noted that “the continuation of the campaigns against the government in the Syrian refugee file is an approach that is clearly aimed at distorting the truth for populist goals.”

Some are seeking to “paralyze the work of the government and preoccupy it with futile bickering and debates,” Mikati lamented, in remarks at the Grand Serail.

Parliament will convene Wednesday to discuss a deal with the EU including a financial package of $1 billion in aid for Lebanon as the EU urged the crisis-hit country to tackle illegal migration to the bloc.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has asked his political aide, Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil, to discuss with all the parliamentary blocs their proposals regarding a recommendation to the government on the European aid deal that Parliament will issue during Wednesday's session, al-Jadeed said.

Hezbollah central council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq has said that the “growing pressures” on Hezbollah are “a proof of the success of the resistance’s strategy,” stressing that “Zionist settlers will not return to the north (of Israel) before the end of the aggression against Gaza.”

“The resistance’s powerful and swift response to the targeting of civilians has burned the ground under the feet of the Zionists,” Qaouq said.

The Ambassadors of the five-nation group on Lebanon, which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, will meet Wednesday at the U.S. embassy in Awkar, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper said.

The daily said U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson will head the meeting.

Two suicide drones launched from Lebanon struck Monday an area near Beit Hillel in northern Israel, Israeli media said.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack and said it has carried out an aerial attack with "a swarm of suicide drones" targeting tents and "sleeping quarters" for an Israeli artillery battalion in a newly created post in Beit Hillel.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday sounded the alarm over the presence of displaced and "illegal" Syrians in Lebanon, noting that "the safe areas in Syria are much bigger than the area of Lebanon."

Hezbollah has said it fired Katyusha rockets at Israel in retaliation for strikes that killed two people in the south of the country.

Israel and Hamas ally Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily cross-border fire following the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked war in Gaza.

Lebanon's Muslim religious authorities have filed complaints against a stand-up comedian and LGBTQ rights activist, after a sketch of hers about Friday prayers sparked controversy online.