A “spiritual-national summit” was held Tuesday in Bkerki in the presence of the Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, amid an apparent Shiite boycott over recent remarks by Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

The summit was attended by al-Rahi, Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan, Druze spiritual leader Sheikh Sami Abi al-Mona, Orthodox Armenian Catholicos Aram I, Catholic Armenian Patriarch Raphaël Bedros XXI, Islamic Alawite Council chief Sheikh Ali Qaddour, MP Pierre Bou Assi representing Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, Marada Movement leader Suleiman Franjieh, and MP Nadim Gemayel representing Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's top advisers minister Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi came to Washington on June 20 for meetings at the White House and told U.S. President Joe Biden's top aides that the Israeli PM is “not interested in a war with Hezbollah and prefers a diplomatic solution,” two U.S. officials told U.S. news portal Axios.

A U.S. official said Biden's advisers told Dermer and Hanegbi that the U.S. is working on a diplomatic solution, but if there's a war in Lebanon because “Hezbollah decides to attach itself to Hamas' leader Yahya Sinwar's interests,” the U.S. will “fully support Israel.”

During his visit to Beirut last week, U.S. President Joe Biden's envoy Amos Hochstein told Lebanese officials that Hezbollah would be wrong to think the U.S. would be able to stop Israel from invading Lebanon if the group continues its attacks, a U.S. official, an Israeli official and a Western diplomat briefed on the issue told U.S. news portal Axios.

"The situation is serious. What President Biden wants to do is to avoid a further escalation to a greater war," Hochstein said before leaving Beirut last Tuesday for a second meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Senior Lebanese officials have defended procedures at Beirut airport during a tour for journalists and diplomats, a day after a British daily alleged Hezbollah was storing weapons at the facility.

The accusations came during escalating exchanges of fire and bellicose rhetoric between Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Israeli forces, which have engaged in near-daily fire since war in Gaza began.

The prospect of a full-scale war between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group terrifies people on both sides of the border, but some see it as an inevitable fallout from Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, particularly as cease-fire negotiations have faltered.

Such a war could be the most destructive either side has ever experienced.

By Asher Kaufman, University of Notre Dame

Months of relentless exchanges between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have seen mass civilian evacuations and widespread death, injury and destruction.

After more than eight months of low-scale conflict, Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah are threatening all-out war.

The United States and the international community are lobbying for calm and hopeful for a diplomatic solution. They have not been successful so far and time for a political settlement could be expiring.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Israel during a Monday meeting with its defense minister to avoid further escalation in Lebanon as they discussed efforts to reach a deal to free hostages in Gaza.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was on a visit to Washington seeking to reaffirm the value of ties with Israel's top ally, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly chastised the United States for what he said was a delay in weapons deliveries.

Israeli artillery shelled Monday the southern town of al-Taybeh, targeting members of the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee, as they tried to extinguish a fire following an Israeli drone attack on the town.

The shelling injured a member of the Islamic Health Committee in the chest, the National News Agency said.

Tensions engulfed the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in Sidon on Monday after a member of the Palestinian National Security Force was shot dead.

Annahar newspaper identified the slain member as Yassine Akl, saying he was killed in “the Ras al-Ahmar area that is controlled by Islamist militants.”