The Israeli army said Thursday it was conducting strikes on southern Lebanon after a mortar launched from its northern neighbor exploded in the border area between the two foes.

The latest military action was launched three months after the two countries saw their worst cross-border fire in years.

French Ambassador Anne Grillo is holding talks with all political forces in Lebanon and will prepare next week for French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian's visit to the crisis-hit country, a local media report said.

Ad-Diyar newspaper also claimed Wednesday that the relation between France and Hezbollah has not been severed.

Hezbollah MP Mohammad Raad said Wednesday that his bloc is taking a calm approach to the presidential file in order to agree with others for the interest of the country.

"But others have become very tense," the MP added.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea accused Wednesday caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati of surpassing the judicial authorities, after the latter decided to form a committee to resolve territorial disputes.

"Land border disputes are within the judiciary's powers," Geagea said.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called Wednesday for an international conference on Lebanon after Lebanese officials failed to hold a dialogue.

"Officials in Lebanon refuse to sit together at a dialogue table because their private interests are more important than the public interest," al-Rahi said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati chaired Wednesday a meeting to discuss the 2023 state budget.

Deputy PM Saadeh al-Shami, caretaker Minister of Finance Youssef al-Khalil, Mikati's advisors Nicolas Nahhas and Samir al-Daher, and Director General of the Ministry of Finance George Maarawi attended the meeting at the Grand Serail.

The French judiciary has accepted the Lebanese state’s request for freezing the assets and properties of Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh and his associates Raja Salameh, Marianne Hoayek and Anna Kozakova, caretaker Justice Minister Henri Khoury said on Tuesday.

The Lebanese Forces’ Strong Republic parliamentary bloc on Tuesday charged that “the dialogue wanted by the defiance camp is only aimed at torpedoing the Taif Accord and the Lebanese constitution.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati accused again those opposing cabinet meetings of "seeking to spread vacuum."

In a statement Tuesday, Mikati said, in an apparent reference to the Free Patriotic Movement, that those who are claiming to preserve the president's powers have themselves practiced obstruction for years.

A son of late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was taken to hospital for the third time after his health deteriorated due to a hunger strike to protest his detention without trial in Beirut, Dubai-based Al-Hadath TV said.

Al-Hadath said Gadhafi was in "critical condition" after he suffered a sharp drop in his blood sugar level. He was taken to Beirut’s Hotel-Dieu de France hospital on Sunday.