Israel will still escalate its strikes against Hezbollah despite the upgrade in the level of negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, an informed source said.

The source told MTV that the escalation would involve strikes against Hezbollah’s arms depots and assassinations against group officials “amid Hezbollah’s clinging to its arms.”

Close to 1.5 million Syrian refugees have voluntarily returned to their home country over the past year.

UNHCR Estimates that 383,326 have returned from Lebanon to Syria since the fall of the Bashar Assad regime in December 2024.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has called for direct negotiations between Lebanon and Israel, noting that Hezbollah cannot be disarmed by force.

He also voiced major concern over a renewal of Israel’s war on Lebanon.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said the mission of the civilian who was included in a committee monitoring the Israel-Lebanon ceasefire is more important than the name.

"The important thing for me is what he will do," Berri told online news website Asas Media in remarks published Friday, adding that what is important is that former Lebanese Ambassador to the United States, Simon Karam succeed in ending Israel's violations and occupation, and in returning the Lebanese prisoners.

A delegation of the U.N. Security Council and U.S. envoy Morgan Ortagus met Friday with President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam. The three leaders urged the delegation to pressure Israel to respect a year-old ceasefire.

Aoun said after the meeting, in a statement on the X platform, that the delegation expressed its support for stability in Lebanon through the implementation of international resolutions, and the willingness to help in supporting the Lebanese Army, completing its deployment, and implementing the state's monopoly on arms.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said Friday that a series of Israeli strikes on south Lebanon Thursday were in the peacekeepers' area of operations, warning Lebanese actors against "any reaction that could aggravate the situation further."

UNIFIL condemned in a statement the strikes as "clear violations of Security Council resolution 1701" and urged the Israeli army to avail of the liaison and coordination mechanisms available to them.

President Joseph Aoun has said the next round of talks with Israel will begin on December 19, calling the reaction to initial negotiations this week "positive".

"It is natural that the first session would not be highly productive, but it paved the way for upcoming sessions that will begin on the 19th of this month," he said, according to information minister Paul Morcos at the end of a cabinet meeting Thursday.

The Trump administration has been tying to foster dialogue between Israel and Lebanon for nine months, U.S. news portal Axios has reported, hours after Lebanese and Israeli civilian representatives held their first talks in decades under the auspices of a year-old ceasefire monitoring mechanism.

A U.S. official told Axios the U.S. hoped Wednesday’s meeting would help de-escalate tensions between the two sides and help to avoid a resumption of the war in Lebanon.

Israeli raids hit south Lebanon on Thursday after Israel's military issued an evacuation warning and said it would strike what it described as Hezbollah military infrastructure.

Israeli warplanes launched a strike on the town of Mahrouna while other raids targeted houses in Jbaa, Baraashit and Majadel, the official National News Agency said, while the Israeli army said it "began conducting strikes on Hezbollah terror targets in southern Lebanon".

The Lebanese Army on Thursday refuted Iranian allegations about the affiliation and loyalty of some of its soldiers.

“The Army Command categorically denies these reports and affirms that all its members adhere to a clear and unwavering military doctrine and are completely loyal to the military institution and the country,” it said in a statement.