An Israeli air strike in Syria killed 15 people early Sunday and badly damaged a building in a Damascus district that is home to several state security agencies, a war monitoring group said. 

Civilians, including two women, were among those killed in "the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital" so far, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Saturday accused political rivals of seeking to elect a "corrupt" president and to appoint a "corrupt PM and a corrupt central bank governor."

The head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammed Raad, admitted Saturday that his party has an undeclared presidential candidate, in an apparent reference to Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh.

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Friday announced that his presidential nomination is “not obstructing the presidential juncture,” contrary to “what some are promoting.”

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi is continuing his efforts to secure Christian consensus over the presidential file, a media report said on Friday.

The Strong Lebanon bloc said Friday, in a statement, that it will not attend any legislative sessions before the election of a president, asking other blocs who also refused to attend parliamentary sessions to boycott the cabinet sessions as well.

The bloc also condemned the banks' open-ended strike, as he accused the caretaker prime minister and the central bank governor of attending "folkloric" meetings as people face alone dire economic situations.

The UK Director General covering the Middle East Vijay Rangarajan ended a two day visit to Lebanon from 15 to 16 February, with the British Embassy in Beirut and UK Syria Office.

"He saw first-hand the UK’s continued support to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the most vulnerable in Lebanon, including Syrian refugees," a British Embassy statement said.

The Central Security Council held Friday an emergency meeting at the Grand Serail, a day after angry protesters blocked roads across the country and smashed windows and set tires on fire outside banks in Beirut, as the value of the local currency hit a new low.

After the meeting, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked if the activists who burned tires in front of the banks are "real depositors," suggesting that they might have received instructions to do what they did.

In less than a week the Lebanese pound's value against the dollar has plummeted to a new low from 66,000 to 80,000 at the black market rate, the exchange rate used for buying and selling most goods and services in the country. There are several mobile exchange rate applications that have been the reference for the black market rate for years.

Though the country’s pegged exchange rate against the dollar was officially devalued to 15,000 earlier this month, the black market rate has reflected a more realistic market rate for years, but rapidly fluctuates with no transparency.

The Lebanese woke up terrified on February 6 as a 7.8-magnitude quake centered in Turkey jolted them from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds.

Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings, terrorized by memories of the 2020 port explosion that wrecked a large swath of the city.