Celebrations marking a Jewish holiday this weekend have been moved after its traditional location near Lebanon was closed due to the threat of Hezbollah rocket fire, Israeli police said.

Every year, tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews celebrate the holiday of Lag Baomer by visiting the tomb of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mount Meron, in northern Israel.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday hit back at the threats that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched on Thursday.

“Netanyahu thinks that he is good with psychological warfare,” Nasrallah said sarcastically during a speech commemorating late Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and his companions, who were killed Sunday in a helicopter crash.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri on Friday marked Lebanon’s Liberation and Resistance Day by calling for “preserving and defending” the country during the current period.

“The entire region, including Lebanon, is witnessing a genocidal war” by Israel, Berri said in a “message to the Lebanese.”

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has expressed his concern over the possible impact of the regional developments on Lebanon, calling for “consensus and dialogue among the Lebanese to exit the crisis of the presidential vacuum.”

“A domestic settlement among the Lebanese parties is what’s essential,” Jumblat, who visited Doha this week, told Qatar’s al-Sharq newspaper.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has criticized anew old FPM ally Hezbollah for opening a war on the southern border with Israel.

Bassil told Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai that Lebanon has enough problems, from a refugee crisis to an economic collapse and a presidential void.

For weeks, refugee Maryam Janhat has been living in fear of deportation as Lebanon cracks down on Syrians, with politicians ramping up calls for them to be forced home.

Refugees from Lebanon's war-torn neighbor face a dilemma: should they stay and contend with stricter measures and growing anti-Syrian sentiment, or should they return home and risk poverty and repression?

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson hosted a reception on May 23 to celebrate the "strong ties" between the U.S. Embassy and the hundreds of Lebanese who have participated in U.S. Government-sponsored international exchange programs in the United States, the embassy said.

Johnson expressed her admiration for the "remarkable achievements" of U.S. exchange alumni, emphasizing the importance the United States places on the "bridges of friendship and understanding" that alumni continue to build between the United States and Lebanon.

An Israeli drone struck Friday a parked car deep into south Lebanon in the village of Hanaouay in the Tyre District, north-west of Qana.

Hezbollah later announced targeting the surveillance equipment at the Israeli post of Bayyad Blida with the "appropriate weapons," saying it managed to destroy the devices.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel has "surprising plans" for Lebanon.

"We have eliminated hundreds of Hezbollah operatives, and the hand is still bent, even today," Netanyahu said Thursday.

Poverty in Lebanon tripled over the course of a decade during which the small country slid into a protracted financial crisis, the World Bank said Thursday.

The percentage of people in Lebanon living below the poverty line rose from 12% in 2012 to 44% in 2022, the bank said in a report based on surveys conducted in five of the country's eight governorates.