The call for Tuesday’s crucial cabinet on Hezbollah’s arms “was not preceded by any agreement, seeing as contacts intensified after PM Nawaf Salam declared the date,” political sources said.

Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil considered, amid domestic and American pressure to disarm Hezbollah, that it is time for the group to admit that its arms have become a burden to Lebanon.

"I call on Hezbollah to act responsibly and to admit that these arms have become a burden," Bassil said in an interview Thursday with Lebanese TV channel MTV, also urging the group to do some "serious thinking" and "not to buy time."

Ahead of Lebanese Army Day on August 1, the UK Chargé D’Affaires Victoria Dunne, accompanied by UK Defense Attaché Lt. Col. Charles Smith, inaugurated a new military accommodation facility in Hamat on Thursday, July 31.

The building, funded by the UK Ministry of Defense, will support UK personnel to deliver a variety of training and support to various Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) units. This includes leadership development for junior officers and infantry skills courses, including for female LAF personnel.

President Joseph Aoun held a meeting Thursday with MP Mohammad Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc.

In a ceremony that honored the courage and sacrifice of healthcare professionals working in conflict zones, the American University of Beirut (AUB) inaugurated the Abu Sittah-Gilbert Humanitarian Award. Established in 2024, this award recognizes health workers and first responders who risk their lives and livelihoods to protect and care for people facing war, siege, and occupation.

The event, which was hosted by the Palestine Land Studies Center at AUB, opened with a minute of silence in respect for all victims of wars and conflicts, followed by a performance by soprano and educator Ghada Ghanem, who recited short poems by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha and sang ‘If I Must Die,’ by the late Refaat Alareer. Ghanem is a faculty member at AUB and collaborates with the Edward Said Conservatory to bring music to children in Gaza.

A series of Israeli air strikes killed four people in south and east Lebanon, the health ministry said Friday, offering a toll for attacks that took place the day before.

The Israeli military said on Thursday that it had targeted Hezbollah "infrastructure that was used for producing and storing strategic weapons", including what the country's defense minister described as the group's "biggest precision missile manufacturing site".

Israeli warplanes on Thursday bombed areas in northeastern and southern Lebanon, a day after a defiant speech by Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem.

President Joseph Aoun met Thursday in Baabda with U.S. Central Command chief General Michael Kurilla, who was accompanied by a U.S. military delegation and U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Thursday hailed the Lebanese Army on the 80th anniversary of its founding.

“Eighty years have passed since the creation of this unifying national institution and it still baptizing our holidays with loyalty, safeguarding sovereignty through great sacrifices, and protecting unity with the honor of belonging," Berri said in a statement.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said there will be no turning back on the state's decision to be the sole bearer of arms, as pressure increases from Washington and domestically to disarm Hezbollah.

In an interview, published Thursday in Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Salam said that it is natural for the state's monopoly on arms to be discussed in the next cabinet session, in implementation of the Taif Agreement and the ceasefire agreement reached in late November with Israel. He said U.S. envoy Tom Barrack's paper provided practical ideas for this.