Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Saturday said recent remarks about “a European bribe to Lebanon to keep the displaced (Syrians) on its soil” are “baseless,” stressing that “this grant is unconditional.”

Free Patrioric Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Saturday accused the European Commission of "combating the migration of Syrians to its countries" while seeking to "replace the Lebanese people with the displaced Syrians and to change the identity of the people and the land."

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he will respond “Friday or Saturday” to the French paper proposing a solution for the Lebanon-Israel border conflict.

Berri, who had received the paper from the French ambassador to Lebanon, told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that it included “acceptable and other unacceptable points that should be modified.”

The European Union announced Thursday an aid package for Lebanon of 1 billion euros — about $1.06 billion — that will mostly go to boost border control to halt the flow of asylum seekers and migrants from the small, crisis-wracked country across the Mediterranean Sea to Cyprus and Italy.

The deal comes against a backdrop of increasing hostility toward Syrian refugees in Lebanon and a major surge in irregular migration of Syrian refugees from Lebanon to Cyprus.

A drug and child molestation gang led by a famous Lebanese TikToker has been busted by Lebanese security forces, in a case that has shocked the country.

The well-known TikToker, Georges Moubayed, is a barber whose shop lies in the Metn neighborhood of Sabtyieh near Beirut, media reports said.

France has proposed to Israel and Lebanon that they hold indirect negotiations in Paris in a bid to find a diplomatic settlement for the border conflict, Israel’s Channel 13 said.

According to the report, Paris said it would sponsor the meeting and that Israeli and Lebanese representatives would meet in the French capital in an attempt to halt the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and allow displaced residents on both sides of the border to return to their homes.

U.S. President Joe Biden has been personally involved in intense efforts in recent days to reach a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, U.S. news portal Axios said.

Senior Biden aides said the deal could also pull Israel and Hezbollah back from the brink of war on the Israel-Lebanon border where tensions have been slowly escalating over the past six months, Axios added.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said "a potential truce in Gaza must be accompanied by a similar truce in Lebanon," as he visited Cairo.

During his visit Wednesday, Sejourne exchanged with Egypt's top diplomat Sameh Shoukry assessments on the ongoing truce negotiations between Hamas and Israel", according to the Egyptian foreign ministry.

Israel's Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said the military was preparing for an offensive against Hezbollah, as he met troops on Lebanon's border amid ongoing skirmishes.

“You are doing an excellent job of operational defense in the north, and we are preparing for an offensive in the north,” Halevi said.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday announced $1 billion in aid for Lebanon during a visit to the crisis-hit country and urged it to tackle illegal migration to the bloc.

The European Union has already agreed deals with Tunisia, Mauritania and other countries to stem flows of irregular migrants.