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. 

Tehran said it summoned the German ambassador on Wednesday after the closure of an Islamic center in Hamburg over alleged support for Lebanon's Hezbollah and links to Iran.

"Following the action of the German police which closed a number of Islamic centers, the German ambassador was summoned today to the ministry of foreign affairs," the ministry said in a statement on X.

Hezbollah on Wednesday released a video showing footage captured by the group’s drones over the Ramat David base in northern Israel.

Hezbollah had released in June a video showing sensitive military and economic sites in Israel's northern strategic city of Haifa and published another video earlier this month captured over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

UNIFIL Force Commander and Head of Mission Lt. Gen. Aroldo Lázaro visited Israel ten days ago to meet with Israeli generals and some foreign ambassadors on an “exploratory visit,” following a similar visit at the end of last winter, a media report published Wednesday said.