President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday stressed the need to consolidate the ceasefire on Syria’s border.

The Lebanese Army on Wednesday entered the Lebanese part of the border town of Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali after Syrian forces withdrew from it, the National News Agency said.

Hezbollah on Tuesday said it “fully and firmly” stands by “the valiant Palestinian resistance and Gaza’s honorable people,” after Israel resumed its war on Gaza and killed more than 400 people in less than 12 hours.
Moreover, Hezbollah called on “what’s left of the free international community, the U.N., the Security Council and legal and humanitarian organizations” to urgently act to “stop this continued crime against humanity.”

Cautious calm was on Tuesday engulfing the al-Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp and the neighboring northern town of Wadi al-Nahleh near Tripoli following overnight clashes that lasted until dawn, the National News Agency said.

“Cautious optimism, Madam President, is the flavor of the day” -- these were the words of the U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, who briefed the United Nations Security Council on the implementation of resolution 1701. She used them to synopsize the recent government formation process in Lebanon, welcoming both the "promising ministerial agenda" adopted, while noting that Lebanon’s protracted leadership vacuum had left the country’s new administration with just over one year to tackle a series of daunting challenges.
Speaking alongside Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the Special Coordinator provided the Council with an overview of the security situation in the country. While noting that the cessation of hostilities continued to hold, she added that this did not mean that all military activity on Lebanese territory had ceased.

Israeli airstrikes overnight targeted three areas in West Bekaa and the outskirts of Deir Mimas in the South.
The Israeli military said it "struck Hezbollah military sites in which Hezbollah terrorists and weapons were identified."

The government will not resort to writing off deposits but will rather adopt an organized mechanism for returning them gradually, Finance Minister Yassine Jaber has said.

An Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded three others Monday in the southern town of Yohmor al-Shaqif in the Nabatieh governorate, the Health Ministry and the National News Agency said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that the FPM supports the abolition of sectarianism, “but not political sectarianism alone.”

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said Monday that the people will again defend their land if the state fails to shoulder its responsibilities against the Israeli occupation and violations.
"When the state abandons this (southern) region, the people will take the responsibility and will not accept the occupation," Fadlallah said, adding that the cause of south Lebanon should not be solely the cause of the Shiites and the southerners but a "national cause."
