United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has vowed to help lead Lebanon into a new phase.

"I will certainly be doing everything I can do to support Lebanon enter a new phase," Fletcher said in an televised interview with LBCI.

A video that circulated online of Lebanese pop star Ragheb Alameh on a phone call with Emirati singer Abdullah Belkheir stirred outrage among Lebanese as Alameh hailed the killing of former Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah enjoys great popularity among his supporters and even some who do not support Hezbollah. He was killed in September in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called Tuesday for Lebanon's return to "positive neutrality."

In a Christmas speech, al-Rahi called for one army "instead of two armies" and for distancing Lebanon from wars, conflicts, and alliances. "Lebanon must protect its sovereignty and defend itself against any occupier, without interfering in the affairs of other states."

United Nations peacekeepers and caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati have called for the Israeli army to speed up its withdrawal from the country, nearly a month into a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

"UNIFIL strongly urges accelerated progress in the IDF's (Israeli military) withdrawal from and the LAF's (Lebanese army) deployment in south Lebanon," the force said in a statement Monday .

The Lebanese Army on Monday took over an empty military post that was being used by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, in the Qousaya area near Zahle.

As he visited Damascus on Saturday, Druze leader Walid Jumblat discussed with Syrian rebel leader Abou Mohammad al-Jolani thirteen points that would help pave the way for a new era in relations.

A longtime critic of the old Syrian regime, Jumblat expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations "will return to normal" as he reportedly discussed with Jolani, who now prefers to be called by his real name Ahmad al-Sharaa, many Lebanese-Syrian issues, including the abolition of the Syrian-Lebanese Supreme Council - a joint council supervising a 1992 cooperation and coordination treaty between Syria and Lebanon.

The deputy head of Hezbollah's political council, Mahmoud Qmati, has said that his party will do everything it can to facilitate the election of a new Lebanese president.

Israeli forces on Monday raised the Israeli flag at entrance of the southern Lebanese border town of Naqoura.

Lebanese official media said the Israeli army handed over seven people to United Nations peacekeepers at the border on Sunday, amid a delicate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

"The Israeli enemy handed over seven freed citizens, who were detained by the enemy after the ceasefire," the official National News Agency (NNA) reported.

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.

Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israeli war on Gaza.