Rockets, rocket launchers and sniper rifles bound for Lebanon have been seized in Homs’ Qusayr region near the Lebanese border, the Syrian interior ministry said on Monday.

Syrian security forces in Homs had on August 19 seized a truck loaded with Grad-type rockets that was allegedly headed for Lebanon, Syrian state media reported at the time.

Tasked by French President Emmanuel Macron, French special envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian will visit Beirut in the next few days to prepare for a Lebanon reconstruction conference and another for assisting the Lebanese Army, the French ambassador said.

Le Drian will also discuss the latest developments with the country’s leaders, French Ambassador to Lebanon Herve Magro told President Joseph Aoun in a meeting on Monday, the Lebanese Presidency said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the Israeli army is striking Hezbollah “whenever it tries to raise its head,” in reference to the daily strikes in Lebanon that have continued despite the ceasefire reached in November last year.

Netanyahu was listing his government’s “achievements” in the region since Hamas’ October 7 attacks, in a video addressed to the Israeli opposition.

President Joseph Aoun met Monday with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and discussed with him the preparations for Friday’s important cabinet session that will tackle the army’s plan for arms monopolization.

Salam also briefed Aoun on the outcome of his latest visit to Egypt and his talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a number of top officials.

Violent Israeli airstrikes on Sunday targeted the Ali al-Taher hills in the southern area of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, an area that has been bombed several times since the November ceasefire.

The Israeli army claimed the strikes hit a site run by Hezbollah.

Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri said Saturday that “Hezbollah, the army and the government have agreed to avoid confrontation.”

Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal held an extraordinary meeting Friday with the army’s command and top officers to discuss “the developments that Lebanon and the army are going through amid the current extraordinary period, amid the Israeli enemy’s violations and attacks.”

“The army is shouldering great responsibilities on all levels, and it will face a delicate stage in which it will assume sensitive missions,” Haykal said, according to an army statement.

UNIFIL on Friday expressed its heartfelt condolences to the Lebanese Army and the families of the personnel who lost their lives in yesterday’s Israeli drone explosion in Naqoura, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. 

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has revealed that he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their latest meeting in Israel to “give Lebanon a break.”

“Give Lebanon a break, give them a whiff of tolerance and understanding. You can’t be apparently so brutal on everybody,” Barrack said he told Netanyahu, in an interview with Mario Nawfal on the X platform.

Hardline Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has stressed that “it’s time for Hezbollah to go.”

“They are trained by Iran, they are loyal to Iran, and we’re looking for military power in Lebanon to be loyal to the Lebanese people and a good partner to the region,” Graham, who is the Chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said at a press conference in Tel Aviv, after meeting officials in Lebanon and Israel.