The Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Tomer Bar, met yesterday with heads of authorities at the Ramat David air base with the participation of other commanders from the Air Force and the Northern Command, the Israeli army said on Thursday.

"We are ready for war. The responsibility of the Air Force to implement all operational plans is full. And there will be a crushing punch as deadly as possible against an enemy we know and there will be surprises," the Israeli commander said.

Diplomatic and security envoys have told Lebanese officials that a breakthrough in the Israel-Hamas negotiations is expected in August, highly informed sources said.

“The envoys said a political solution is necessary to contain escalation (between Israel and Hezbollah) and prevent the descent of the current confrontations into a major war,” the sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Thursday.

The Israeli state media said Thursday that the Israeli army is prepared for a ground maneuver in Lebanon.

The army has informed the government that it has finalized preparations for a maneuver that would be preceded by powerful airstrikes, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation said.

France is “fully committed to reaching a de-escalation” between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, its permanent representative to the U.N. said.

“France is extremely concerned by the deterioration of the situation along the Blue Line and remains fully committed to reaching a de-escalation, and promoting a diplomatic solution to avoid a full-fledged war,” the representative Nicolas de Rivière said ahead of a U.N. Security Council meeting.

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat considers Speaker Nabih Berri's presidential initiative as "an emergency exit" from the presidential deadlock, close sources to the Druze leader said.

The sources told al-Joumhouria newspaper, in remarks published Thursday, that Jumblat does not support unproductive presidential proposals that lack impetus.

Hezbollah said Thursday it has targeted overnight surveillance equipment in Berkat Risha and the Hanita post in northern Israel with artillery shells.

The group said it has fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli warplanes in south Lebanon, forcing them to retreat beyond the border.

A man who severely injured author Salman Rushdie in a frenzied knife attack in western New York was motivated by a Hezbollah leader's endorsement of a fatwa calling for Rushdie's death, prosecutors said Wednesday in announcing new terrorism charges.

The three-count indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo offered for the first time a potential motive for the 2022 attack on "The Satanic Verses" author.

Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon (SCL), on Wednesday briefed the U.N. Security Council, alongside U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix.

The consultations followed publication of the latest report (S/2024/548) of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the implementation of Resolution 1701 (2006).

Israel prefers diplomacy but will do "whatever it must" to secure its northern border, where its forces are engaged in near-daily clashes with Lebanon's Hezbollah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.

"Let me be clear: Israel will do whatever it must do to restore security to our northern border and return our people safely to their homes," Netanyahu said, referring to those displaced by the fighting.

Israel has canceled the upcoming school year in areas near the border with Lebanon amid cross-border clashes with Hezbollah.