Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday ordered the Israeli army to be on alert in the north amid an apparent setback in the efforts to reach a maritime border deal with Lebanon.

Gantz will hold a situational assessment with the army’s chief of staff and other security officials, after Israel said it will not accept Lebanese amendments to a U.S.-brokered deal, Israeli media reports said.

President Michel Aoun said Thursday that Lebanon’s remarks over U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein’s latest proposal “guarantee Lebanon’s right to oil and gas exploration in the fields specified in the Exclusive Economic Zone.”

“These remarks also prevent any interpretations that do not conform to the framework specified by Lebanon for the demarcation process during the negotiations that lasted for months,” Aoun added, during a meeting with caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim.

Two more depositors sought to forcefully withdraw their savings on Thursday in Lebanon.

Just south of Beirut in Khalde, a man tried but was unable to break into a Banque Libano-Française branch, according to depositors' groups, and has since left the scene.

A Lebanese official involved in the negotiations to demarcate the sea border between Lebanon and Israel told AFP on Thursday that "Lebanon has not yet been notified of Israel's response,” shortly after a senior Israeli official said that Israel will reject Lebanon's latest amendments to a U.S.-drafted proposal.

The official, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the talks, said Beirut's negotiators had been working with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein "all night... to clarify some points."

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Thursday in Bkirki with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mikati said he briefed the patriarch on “the important issue that is about to be finalized, which is related to the demarcation of the maritime border.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has scheduled a second presidential election session for Thursday, October 13.

The session will be held at 11:00 am.

Israel will reject Lebanon's amendments to a U.S.-drafted proposal on resolving a long-running maritime border dispute over gas-rich waters off the Lebanese and Israeli coasts.

A draft agreement floated by U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein aims to settle competing claims over offshore gas fields and was delivered to Lebanese and Israeli officials at the weekend, following years of indirect negotiations.

A Lebanese judge on Thursday fined and issued a six-month travel ban to a woman who stormed her bank with a fake pistol and took her trapped savings to cover her sister's cancer treatment.

Lebanon's cash-strapped banks have imposed strict limits on withdrawals of foreign currency since 2019, tying up the savings of millions of people. About three-quarters of the population has slipped into poverty as the tiny country's economy continues to spiral. The Lebanese pound has lost 90% of its value against the dollar.

Lebanon is grappling to strike a deal with Israel over contested maritime gas fields, but even with an agreement the cash-strapped country faces multiple hurdles before tapping potential hydrocarbon riches, analysts say.

"A deal would mark one step forward but it does not mean that Lebanon has become a gas- or oil-producing country," said Marc Ayoub, an associate fellow at the American University of Beirut's Issam Fares Institute.

MPs Walid al-Baarini, Mohammed Suleiman, Ahmed al-Kheir and Sajih Atiyeh of Akkar’s National Moderation Bloc, accompanied by the bloc’s secretary ex-MP Hadi Hbeish, on Wednesday held talks Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel and MPs Nadim Gemayel and Salim al-Sayegh at Kataeb’s headquarters in Saifi.

“We discussed what gathers us, especially the attempt to devise a common strategy for the presidential election,” Sami Gemayel said after the meeting.