Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir visited the 36th Division area on Friday together with the chief of the northern command after the Israeli army blew up the Hezbollah tunnels of the strategic Ali Taher ridge.

“After the Hamas attack on October 7, it was Hezbollah that initiated and launched the war against Israel on the northern front. Hezbollah is fighting and destroying Lebanon on behalf of the Iranian regime,” Zamir said.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced that it has taken action against entities and individuals that support Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah.

In a statement, the Treasury charged that the two groups “fuel Iran’s destabilizing influence in the Middle East, endanger U.S. and partner forces, and facilitate extensive sanctions evasion schemes.”

Speaker Nabih Berri has stated that "the situation is dangerous" in south Lebanon and "solutions remain far off," noting that "the framework agreement has fallen."

"If the Israelis want to occupy, they can do so," Berri added, in remarks to al-Joumhouria newspaper.

President Joseph Aoun stated Thursday that the Lebanese state has "received the appeals of our people in Nabatieh, Tyre and Arab Salim.”

“I wish to tell them: We have heeded your calls and stand by your side; we certainly cannot remain distant from you. We must exert every effort to support and assist you, and to secure the essentials for your resilience to the greatest extent possible,” Aoun said during a cabinet session.

MP Ali Ammar of Hezbollah on Thursday responded to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, lamenting that “day by day, the United States’ blatant interference in Lebanese affairs is intensifying and Lebanon’s sovereignty is crudely violated -- whether through statements from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut or provocative remarks by its ambassador.”

“It is as if someone has appointed themselves guardian over Lebanon, imposing conditions and paths, categorizing its people and political forces, and dictating its choices and orientations,” Ammar said.

Israeli strikes targeted Thursday Nabatieh al-Fawqa, al-Mansouri and the region between Zebqine and Shihine.

Overnight into Thursday, artillery shelled Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh, Wadi al-Hujair, Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Wadi Slouqi, and Israeli forces detonated houses and infrastructure in al-Mansouri, Mays al-Jabal, Bani Hayyan, and al-Khiam.

The Constitutional Council on Thursday issued a decision suspending the effect of the general amnesty law that was recently approved by parliament, after an appeal was filed against the law by the Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc.

The law will remain suspended until the council issues a final verdict.

MP Hassan Fadlallah of Hezbollah on Thursday emphasized that "the Resistance is committed to confronting the presence of the occupation using all available and feasible means and capabilities.”

“The enemy is currently attempting to impose a new equation to make the cost of liberation hefty and high, aiming to avoid a repeat of the scenarios seen in earlier stages, particularly prior to the year 2000, that’s why it expands its attacks and crimes against civilians upon every confrontation,” Fadlallah said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Thursday that the Lebanese do not want Hezbollah to be armed and that south Lebanon does not belong to the Iran-backed group.

In a post on the X platform, the embassy "the United States applauds these communities and supports the government of Lebanon in its stated goal to assert sovereignty, enforced by the LAF, and ensure that the decisions of war and peace lie exclusively with the Lebanese state."

President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday said that the loyalty of the Lebanese must be to their country, warning that “anyone who seeks external backing against a fellow citizen at home is bound to lose, because foreign powers will eventually abandon them.”

“No war in Lebanon has ever produced a winner; rather, everyone lost, and the nation itself suffered. We chose the path of negotiation because we are a sovereign state; this decision serves Lebanon’s interests and is not intended to appease any foreign party,” Aoun said.