Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stressed Tuesday that Israel will not withdraw its forces from south Lebanon as long as Hezbollah has weapons.

“Our presence at five points in southern Lebanon is not part of the ceasefire agreement, but we imposed it, and the United States accepted it," Katz added.

The key Ring highway in Beirut and the vital Khalde road just outside the capital were blocked on Tuesday in protest at the government’s overnight decision to hike gasoline prices by 25% and the Valued Added Tax (VAT) from 11% to 12%.

The government said it made the move in order to fund a wage increase for the public sector and the armed forces equivalent to six times their wages in Lebanese pound in 2019.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino received a Lebanese passport at the Interior Ministry in Beirut on Monday, months after he was granted citizenship by President Joseph Aoun.

Infantino, who is married to Lebanese citizen Lina al-Ashkar, thanked Aoun at a meeting at the Interior Ministry where Infantino filed documents and had a photograph and fingerprints taken before being handed his new blue Lebanese passport.

Lebanon's government said Monday that the army would need at least four months to implement the second phase of the military's plan to disarm Hezbollah in the country's south.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Monday criticized the Lebanese government for offering “continuous concessions” to Israel, suggesting that the Lebanese state should halt all steps related to the so-called arms monopolization plan.

“If you want to surrender, amend the constitution, because the constitution's essence is confrontation and defense for the sake of liberation,” said Qassem in a televised speech commemorating Hezbollah’s slain leaders Ragheb Harb, Abbas al-Moussawi and Imad Mughniyeh.

Today's cabinet session appears unlikely to be decisive in setting detailed timelines for the plan to confine weapons north of the Litani River, a media report said.

“Observers do not rule out the possibility that this article will be a contentious issue, especially since the contacts made in the past two days have not yielded a solution acceptable to all parties,” the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

Germany moved to assure Lebanon on Monday that it will support the Lebanese government even after pulling out German troops deployed as part of U.N. peacekeepers along the Lebanon-Israel border when their mission ends later this year.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the announcement during a joint news conference with President Joseph Aoun at the presidential palace in Baabda. Germany's navy, he said, is already training Lebanese troops as they boost their presence in the country's south following the 14-month war between Israel and Hezbollah.

President Joseph Aoun stressed Monday that Lebanon is “no longer able to bear anyone's conflicts, nor anyone's burdens.”

“We desire nothing but the well-being of our people, the prosperity of our nation and the lives of our children,” Aoun said during a joint press conference with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the Baabda Palace.

Speaker Nabih Berri stressed Monday that the May parliamentary elections will be held on time and that even a “technical” delay is not possible.

“There is a law that is in force,” Berri said of the electoral law.

One person was killed Monday in an Israeli drone strike on a van and an SUV in the southern town of Hanine.

The Israeli army claimed that the targeted person was a Hezbollah operative who was working on rebuilding military infrastructure for the group in south Lebanon.