French special envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, left Beirut on Thursday without having been able to convince the political parties to agree on electing a president.

The former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Defense, who met the main political actors including the powerful pro-Iranian Hezbollah, "did not make a major breakthrough", a French diplomatic source told AFP in Beirut .

Israel has not given a response to a French proposal to de-escalate tensions on the Lebanese-Israeli border, French foreign ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said.

Lemoine said the Lebanese response was "rather favorable" but Israel had still not not officially responded to the proposal.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has said that he does not expect peace between Israel and Hezbollah, but argued that boosting Lebanon’s economy and armed forces would decrease Iranian influence in country.

In an interview with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Hochstein added that a Lebanon-Israel land border agreement implemented in phases could curb the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah carried out Friday an aerial attack with suicide drones on Iron Dome launchpads in al-Za'oura in the occupied Golan Heights, in response to Israeli strikes on the southern border town of Houla.

The group also fired Friday "heavy-caliber Burkan rockets" at Israeli posts in northern Israel as Israeli artillery shelled the southern border town of al-Wazzani.

Hezbollah targeted Thursday a group of soldiers in Mount Adir in northern Israel, while the Israeli army raided the southern border town of Hanine.

Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, has traded regular cross-border fire with Israel since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

Kataeb Party chief Sami Gemayel has said that Hezbollah is not willing to discuss the possibility of electing a “third” presidential candidate other than Suleiman Franjieh and Jihad Azour.

“They are still clinging to Franjieh,” Gemayel said in an interview on Tele Liban.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said that Hezbollah and Amal are the ones who refused a third-man solution to the presidential crisis in Lebanon.

French President's Special Envoy to Lebanon Jean-Yves Le Drian had arrived Tuesday in Lebanon in a bid to break the presidential deadlock in the crisis-hit country.

U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson has attended the graduation from the American University of Beirut (AUB) of 76 scholars awarded U.S. government scholarships through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S. embassy in Beirut said in a statement.

"These academically gifted students represent a new generation of public and private sector leaders in Lebanon, many of whom might not otherwise be able to attend university amid Lebanon’s economic crisis," the statement said.

The second annual Ambassador For A Day competition has celebrated and demonstrated the potential of Lebanon’s youth by giving girls aged 15-18 the opportunity to shadow heads of diplomatic missions for one day.

UNIFIL on Wednesday marked the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, an annual event to honor the "commitment and sacrifice of women and men serving for peace around the world," a UNIFIL statement said.

On this day, UNIFIL normally hosts a gathering of peacekeepers; national, local, and religious officials; and members of the Lebanese Armed Forces and other security agencies at its Naqoura headquarters. "The mission did not hold an event today due to the security situation and the ongoing exchanges of fire in the south," UNIFIL said.