Al-Mustaqbal Movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri kicked off his political activity in Lebanon by meeting U.S. Ambassador Michel Issa at the Center House.

Hariri had arrived Thursday in Lebanon and will on Saturday deliver a speech marking the 21st anniversary of the assassination of ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

President Joseph Aoun said Friday, a day ahead of the anniversary of former PM Rafik Hariri's assassination, that "a man who dedicated his life to the project of the state" is missed, as Lebanon moves to disarm Hezbollah and extend the state's authority to all territories.

Aoun described Hariri as a man who believed in the state and dedicated his life to rebuild Lebanon after a devastating civil war, and to strengthen the country's ties with the Arab and international worlds.

Lebanon has secured temporary exemptions for freight vehicles hauling certain goods after a recent ban by Damascus on foreign trucks.

Damascus had issued a decision on Saturday stipulating that "non-Syrian trucks will not be allowed to enter" the country, and that goods being imported by road must be unloaded at specific points at border crossings.

An Israeli strike on south Lebanon killed one person on Thursday, Lebanon's health ministry reported, while the Israeli military said it killed a member of Iran-backed Hezbollah.

Despite a November 2024 truce that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems "strategic".

Israeli troops have recently intensified their incursions into southern border villages, where they detonate houses, bulldoze lands, uproot trees, and sometimes kill or abduct people.

They've also been dropping stun grenades to scare or disperse people, sometimes during funerals.

A meeting scheduled to be held in Doha to pave the way for the Lebanese Army support conference has been postponed, local al-Liwaa newspaper said Thursday.

The daily said it had learned from informed diplomatic sources that the Doha meeting will not take place next week, as scheduled, for technical reasons.

Cabinet will convene at 3pm Monday to discuss the army’s plan for monopolizing arms north of the Litani River, media reports said.

Information Minister Paul Morcos confirmed Wednesday in an interview that the government would decide next week on how to proceed with the plan.

Israeli troops advanced Thursday at dawn into al-Nouriyeh neighborhood in central Kafr Kila, where they blew up a building.

Another force had pushed into the southern border town of Odaisseh overnight, demolishing another two houses on the outskirts of the town.

Authorities are investigating the imposter who posed as a Saudi prince, extorting several politicians with the help of a religious figure, a judicial official said.

A former prime minister and several other politicians, most of them Sunni Muslim, were caught up in the scandal that exposed the country’s deep-rooted corruption.

Given President Joseph Aoun's insistence on holding the parliamentary elections on time, sources have told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper that he is seeking a practical solution that would suspend the sixteenth electoral district, designated for expatriate representation with six seats, while allowing for a limited postponement of the elections until mid-summer.

According to this solution, expatriates would be able to vote upon their return to Lebanon, via temporary ballot boxes at Beirut’s airport, starting at the beginning of the summer holiday and without being bound by the official election date, the daily said.