Hezbollah said it fired Katyusha rockets and drones at Israel on Sunday after strikes which the Israeli army said targeted Hezbollah weapons storage facilities.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian group's October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
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The Israeli military on Sunday said it struck Hezbollah weapons storage facilities overnight, after Lebanese state media reported an Israeli strike on an ammunitions depot deep in the south.
Hezbollah has traded near-daily cross-border fire with Israeli forces in support of Hamas since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
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Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has ruled out a broad Israeli war on Lebanon while stressing the need to “stop the genocidal war that Israel is waging on the Palestinian people.”
In an interview with the Milan-based Avvenire newspaper, which is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church, Berri added that “Lebanon does not need new agreements to restore calm and stability in the (southern) border area,” noting that “there is a resolution issued by the U.N. Security Council carrying the number 1701 and Lebanon is committed to all its stipulations.”
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Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday met with Vladimir Safronkov, the Russian foreign minister’s special envoy for Lebanon.
“The meeting tackled the situation in south Lebanon and Gaza and the stalled peace process,” the National News Agency said.
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Hezbollah’s top lawmaker Mohammad Raad on Friday noted that the “course” of his group’s conflict with Israel will become clear “within a few days,” in an apparent reference to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S.
“Let us be patient for a few days to see the prospects and the atmosphere that we will move forward in. We will not hesitate or give up our resistant choice and we will not weaken in the face of the arrogance of tyranny and occupation,” Raad added.
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"Without dialogue, there will be no president," pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper quoted Speaker Nabih Berri as saying.
The daily reported Friday that Berri thinks that "it's much easier today" as all parties, except one - the Lebanese Forces -, have agreed to participate in his dialogue initiative, including the Free Patriotic Movement.
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Israeli artillery shelled Friday the southern border town of Houla and the outskirts of Kfarshouba and Kfarhamam, a day after Israeli strikes killed at least five people in Lebanon.
Hezbollah for its part attacked Friday, for the first time since war broke out, Abirim, Neve Ziv and Manot in north Israel in response to Israeli attacks on civilians in south Lebanon.
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An Israeli airstrike killed a commander and other militants from Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force late Thursday in southern Lebanon, according to the group and Israel's military.
Hezbollah confirmed the death of one of its commanders, Ali Jaafar Maatouq, also known as Habib Maatouq. Israel said in a statement it had killed Maatouq and another Radwan Force commander, as well as other members of Hezbollah's secretive special forces, which operate along the border.
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Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Thursday the so-called Axis of Defiance and the Free Patriotic Movement of obstructing change in Lebanon.
The FPM prioritizes its "narrow interests", Geagea charged, adding that the FPM members seek political and personal gains "at the expense of Lebanon's interest."
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U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has repeatedly said that General Security acting chief Brig. Gen. Elias Bayssari has “no chance” to be elected president, several prominent politicians have said, according to al-Akhbar newspaper.
“Hochstein has recently sent a message to MP Jebran Bassil through a U.S.-based Lebanese figure, asking him to think of a candidate other than Bayssari,” the daily added.
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