Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has tried to convince Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri of electing Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun as president, several local media reports said.

Jumblat had met Berri on Monday and both said they were optimistic that a president would be elected in a session scheduled for January 9.

A group of Israeli settlers have briefly crossed the border into Lebanon before they were removed by troops, the military acknowledged Wednesday.

The settlers who crossed the border came from the Uri Tzafon movement, a group calling for Israeli settlement of southern Lebanon. Photos posted by the group online Saturday showed a small group of settlers holding signs and erecting tents inside Lebanon while Israeli soldiers were present.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert visited Tuesday Tripoli in north Lebanon.

At the Maronite Archdiocese in Tripoli, the Special Coordinator met with the Archbishop of the Maronite Archdiocese of Tripoli Bishop Youssef Soueif, the Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Mohammad Imam, the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Tripoli Archbishop Aphram Kyriacos, the President the Islamic Alawite Council in Lebanon Sheikh Ali Mahmoud Qaddour, MP Ashraf Rifi, MP Elias Khoury, MP Jamil Aboud and security officials.

Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that the impression of the U.S., Israel and some of their allies about "the end of the resistance" is "a totally wrong impression."

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati vowed Tuesday that Israel's ceasefire violations will soon be stopped, as Israel targeted a car in the southern town of Majdalzoun.

Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 29 people and wounded 27 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding. It says a truce deal with Lebanon gives it the right to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he is still optimistic regarding the presidential file, noting that he had called for the Jan. 9 electoral session more than a month prior to its date to give everyone several weeks to conduct discussions and reach agreements.

As Israel kept violating a U.S.-French brokered ceasefire, weeks after it was reached, Hezbollah accused it of taking advantage of a 60-days time limit, describing the Lebanese state's efforts to stop Israel's violations as unsuccessful.

As part of the ceasefire deal, Israeli troops have 60 days to withdraw from Lebanon, while Hezbollah will have to pull its heavy weapons away from the border area to north of the Litani river.

The head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, MP Mohammad Raad, has noted that the regime change in Syria was not spontaneous, but rather the product of a "program prepared by regional and international forces whose interests intersected over changing the authority in Syria."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea will work on securing consensus over a new president, MP Farid al-Khazen said after meeting him on Monday.

For Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, the joy of Christmas this year is doubled as he celebrates the ouster of Syrian President and Hezbollah ally Bashar al-Assad.

Geagea appeared Sunday night on a screen in a LF-organized event in Canada. He called on Lebanese expats to return, promising that a U.S.-French brokered ceasefire in Lebanon and the fall of al-Assad are a real chance to rebuild Lebanon.