Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat has criticized the much-awaited legislative session that was held on Thursday and Friday, saying it was “too costly at all levels.”

The session “exhausted all efforts, capabilities and the capacities of the human mind in order to be held,” said Jumblat in an editorial on his party's al-Anbaa online magazine, referring to the strenuous negotiations and political wrangling that eventually secured the convention of the parliament.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam held an urgent security meeting on Friday over the backdrop of the twin bombings that targeted Bourj al-Barajneh south of Beirut a day earlier, the National News Agency said.

Several Ministers attended the meeting including Defense Samir Moqbel, Finance Ali Hassan Khalil, Health Wael Abou Faour, Interior Nouhad al-Mashnouq and Justice Ashraf Rifi in addition to Army Commander Gen. Jean Qahwaji, Higher Defense Council chief Mohammed Khair, Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ibrahim Basbous, Lebanese Army Intelligence Chief Brig. Gen. Edmond Fadel, Information Branch chief Brig. Gen. Imad Othman, State Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud, and Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Friday for the Bourj al-Barajneh bombing, saying that three suicide bombers were behind the attack, reported Voice of Lebanon radio (100.5).

It identified them as Syrian Khaled al-Khaled and Palestinians Hamed al-Balegh and Ammar Salem al-Rayyes.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam received on Thursday a series of calls urging him to hold cabinet to session in order to stay abreast the latest security developments in Lebanon in wake of the Bourj al-Barajneh bombing, reported An Nahar daily on Friday.

Ministerial sources told the daily that the premier received numerous calls demanding that the government urgently convene to confront the repercussions of Thursday's bombing.

Lebanon was holding a day of mourning Friday for 44 people killed in twin bombings on a busy shopping street in southern Beirut, the bloodiest such attack for years which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Around 239 people were also wounded, many of them seriously, by the explosions in a narrow shopping street in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood that is a bastion of the Hizbullah movement.

French President Francois Hollande on Thursday condemned as "despicable" the twin bomb attack that killed 43 people and injured 239 others in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh.

"The president of the republic expresses his indignation and horror after the attack that killed several dozen people this afternoon in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut," he said in a statement issued by the presidency.

Lebanese leaders strongly condemned Thursday the deadly twin bombings that rocked the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh, urging unity and vigilance.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam declared Friday a day of national mourning and called on all Lebanese to show more “alert, unity and solidarity in the face of the seditious schemes.”

Al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri condemned Thursday in his name and in the name of his movement what he described as “the heinous terrorist attacks against our people in Bourj al-Barajneh,” after two suicide bombers killed at least 43 people and wounded 239 others in the Beirut southern suburb.

He said on twitter: “Targeting civilians is a vile and unjustified act that cannot be downplayed by any allegations.”

Twin suicide bombings rocked a busy shopping street Thursday in the Beirut southern suburb of Bourj al-Barajneh, killing 43 people and wounding 239 others, in the worst such attack in years.

NNA said the attack was carried out by two suicide bombers who blew up their explosive vests in the Ain al-Sikkeh street.

The parliament on Thursday approved the food safety law during a much-anticipated legislative session, the first that the legislature holds since around a year, Health Minister Wael Abou Faour announced.

“Citizens' health has become immunized and the quality of their food has improved, and we now have a Central Commission,” he said.