Israel carried out several airstrikes in south Lebanon on Monday as its artillery struck some border towns.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said Israeli warplanes and drones bombed a house and a gas station in the border town of Kfarkila in two separate raids.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Monday stressed that the election of a president in Lebanon should not be linked to the raging war in Gaza.

“The failure to elect a president and the use of weak excuses are unacceptable,” al-Rahi said in his New Year’s Day Mass sermon.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has closed an international tribunal that was created to investigate the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the U.N. chief's spokesperson said.

Over the years, the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon held in absentia proceedings and found three members of Hezbollah guilty in connection with Hariri's death in a massive Feb. 14, 2005 truck bombing.

The deputy leader of Hezbollah has said that Israel is "not in a position" to impose its preferences over the group's presence in the Lebanese border area while its war in Gaza rages.

The Israel-Lebanon border has been rocked by escalating exchanges of fire, mainly between the Israeli army and Iran-backed Hezbollah, since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, raising fears of a broader conflict.

Israel carried out a series of airstrikes in south Lebanon on Sunday, as Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacking an Israeli border post, in a continuation of the cross-border clashes that started on October 8.

Israeli warplanes struck the border villages of Aita al-Shaab, Marwahin, Ramia and Beit Leef, as Israeli drones bombed the outskirts of Alma al-Shaab and Naqoura.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday said he rejects the spread of the Gaza war to south Lebanon, calling for a halt to the cross-border clashes and for "the protection of the Lebanese and their homes and properties."

For decades, Tele Liban has been a mainstay of Lebanese living rooms. Now the country is seeking UNESCO recognition for the archives of its pioneering Arab broadcaster.

Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has told Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz that Berlin can play a role in removing Hezbollah’s “threat” from Israel’s northern border with Lebanon.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu overnight stressed that he is committed to “restoring security” along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon so that the Israelis who were evacuated from there can return to their communities.

“On the northern border, we are landing heavy blows against Hezbollah, eliminating many terrorists and destroying the enemy’s capabilities,” Netanyahu said in a press conference in Tel Aviv.

Air strikes in eastern Syria, "likely" carried out by Israel, killed at least 23 pro-Iran fighters Saturday, a war monitor said, reporting four more dead in the country's north.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said "23 pro-Iranian fighters," including five Syrians, four from Lebanon's Hezbollah, six Iraqis and eight Iranians, were killed in at least nine pre-dawn air strikes near the Iraqi border.