The street protests pledged by Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun will kick off “immediately” after Thursday's cabinet session, reported the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Sunday.

Leading sources from the movement told the daily: “We have not yet set the final date and time of the first popular protest.”

The army has the situation along the Lebanese-Syrian border under control, reassured a military source to the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

It told the daily: “The border is under control and the military is performing its duties to the fullest, leaving no room for the gunmen.”

Education Minister Elias Bou Saab criticized the adoption of decisions linked to the agricultural sector during the last cabinet session in spite of the absence of Prime Minister Tammam Salam from the meeting, reported the daily al-Mustaqbal on Sunday.

He told the daily: “Decisions cannot be taken in such a manner.”

The Free Patriotic Movement's call for street protests took a new turn on Saturday after its chief Michel Aoun revealed plans to hold demonstrations in several districts and his son-in-law Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil vowed to take “partnership by force.”

“The Christians of the Orient are being eliminated by the sword and they want to eliminate us politically,” Aoun told his supporters in Rabieh.

The Internal Security Forces said Saturday that police arrested a 14-year-old for killing a boy in the Mount Lebanon town of Bshamoun.

A communique issued by the ISF General Directorate said the body of Mahmoud al-Assi, 9, was found at a construction site covered with a bed sheet and soil at 5:00 am.

A Palestinian man was killed on Saturday over a dispute on the implementation of an infrastructure project at the Rashidiyeh camp near the southern city of Tyre, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said Ahmed Majed Awad, 32, died after Ghanem Daher, also a Palestinian, opened fire at him.

Syrian troops backed by members of Hizbullah began a major offensive Saturday under the cover of intense airstrikes to retake a rebel-held mountain resort while opposition fighters retaliated by shelling the capital Damascus.

Taking the rebel-held town of Zabadani would tighten Hizbullah's grip on Syrian territories bordering Lebanon and would strengthen the Syrian government's control over of the Beirut-Damascus highway.

Families of the abducted Arsal soldiers held a brief sit-in near the Qatari embassy in Beirut, amid heightened security presence, protesting the delay in efforts to free their sons, the National News Agency said.

The families called on the state of Qatar to complete the efforts and help free their abducted sons “before the holy month of Ramadan comes to an end.”

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi held Hizbullah responsible for the al-Saadiyat incident, stressing commitment to the state's authority and urging all related officials to unite efforts and put an end to the party's behavior, the National News Agency said on Saturday.

“Lately we have seen the criminal act in al-Saadiyat where Hizbullah, under the cover of the so-called Resistance Brigades, violated the town and terrorized its people through a show of force repeating the scene of May 7,” said Rifi during an Iftar in the town of Tripoli.

Israeli troops deployed in the outskirts of the town of Shebaa and took combat positions close to Lebanon's Blue Line, the state-run National News Agency said on Saturday.

At 10:00 am, the troops deployed in the al-Shahel area near the Blue Line that demarcates the border between Lebanon and Israel, NNA added.