In an operation in southern Lebanon early on Monday, Israelis forces seized a local official with the Jamaa Islamiya group and took him to Israel for questioning, the Israeli military and Lebanese state media reported.

According to the NNA agency, Atwi Atwi — a local official with the Sunni Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya, or the Islamic Group in English — was taken in the southern village of Hebbarieh, in the region of Hasbaya and close to the border with Israel.

Lebanon's health ministry expressed surprise and said it would seek clarification after Kuwait inscribed several private hospitals in the Mediterranean country on its "terror" list on Sunday.

Kuwait's foreign ministry issued a circular indicating that it had listed the eight hospitals as part of regulations related to "combatting terrorism."

The death toll in a building collapse in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli rose to 14 after search and rescue operations ended, the civil defense chief said Monday.

The building consisted of two blocks, each containing six apartments in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood, one of the poorest areas in the city. Twenty-two people were inside at the time of the collapse.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Sunday continued his visit to south Lebanon and inspected the war-hit border town of Kfarkela.

"The town has witnessed a disaster and we will work on reorganizing it and rehabilitating infrastructure to secure residents' return, seeing as the process of repairing roads and installing a telecom network will begin in the coming weeks," Salam said in Kfarkela.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Saturday visited several southern cities and towns, stressing that "the right of the people of the South to safety, to their homes, to their land, and to a dignified life is an indivisible national right."

Hezbollah has replaced a top security official who was in charge of coordination with Lebanon's security agencies after he told the group's leadership that he wants to step down, two officials with the group who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter said.

Wafiq Safa had headed Hezbollah's Liaison and Coordination Unit for decades and it was not immediately clear what his new job within the Iran-backed group is going to be. Hezbollah's leadership accepted Safa's resignation Friday, one of the officials said.

Iran-backed groups in the Middle East, including Hezbollah, should exercise the "greatest restraint" if there is regional escalation between Iran and the United States to avoid destabilizing the region, France's foreign minister said.

Jean-Noël Barrot made his comments in Beirut, where he arrived earlier in the day after visiting Syria and Iraq. His visit also comes as the U.S. and Iran held indirect talks in Oman on how to approach discussions over Tehran's nuclear program.

U.N. peacekeepers patrolling southern Lebanon have faced a dramatic surge of "aggressive behavior" by Israeli forces over the last year, including drone-dropped grenades and machine-gun fire, according to an internal report seen by The Associated Press.

The report by one of the 48 nations that together have more than 7,500 peacekeepers in southern Lebanon says the number of incidents jumped from just one in January to 27 in December. The hilly frontier zone where the UNIFIL force patrols has seen decades of cross-border violence. Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah fought a full-scale war in 2024.

President Joseph Aoun announced Friday that “the arms monopolization decision is taken and is being gradually implemented, while taking into consideration protecting civil peace and preserving stability and security in the country.”

“Political contacts are part of the adopted plan, in parallel with the military plan devised by the Army Command,” Aoun added.

President Joseph Aoun met Friday with U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa to discuss the recent developments and the results of Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal’s visit to Washington.

“They further discussed preparations for the conference to support the Lebanese Army and Internal Security Forces, scheduled for March 5 in Paris, in which the United States will participate. A preparatory meeting will precede the conference to coordinate positions, particularly as President Aoun's attendance alongside (French) President (Emmanuel) Macron lends it significant importance,” the Presidency said.