The Maronite bishops council lamented on Monday the various security incidents in Lebanon and the spread of arms in the country, especially the frequent kidnappings.

It attributed the frequency of the abductions to “the state's weakness and tendency to achieve stability through appeasement.”

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed on Monday that political consensus over the parliamentary elections will reflect stability in the country, hailing the municipal by-elections that were held in several towns.

“If I was asked to choose between stability and holding the elections, I favor stability,” Charbel said during a press conference at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry.

Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani and the deputy head of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council, Sheikh Abdul Amir Qabalan, discussed on Monday ways to distance the country from strife.

A statement issued by Dar al-Fatwa, Lebanon’s highest Sunni authority, said Qabalan telephoned Qabbani “to discuss ways to avoid the country's slide to strife and infighting under any slogan or controversial issue.”

Doubts are looming over whether the constitutional council that settles parliamentary election disputes and laws is constitutional or not, media reports said on Monday.

According to al-Akhbar newspaper, the tenure of five members of the current constitutional council ended in June last year and the parliament and cabinet, which equally appoint the 10 members of the council, didn't elect new members to replace them.

Israeli bulldozers backed by several army vehicles crossed the technical fence in the South on Monday and carried out construction work in a disputed area, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the bulldozers and around 25 Israeli soldiers in armored vehicles entered some 10-25 meters into the disputed area on the eastern bank of the Wazzani river and began digging a road and erecting earth mounds.

Head of Public Secondary School Education Teachers Association Hanna Gharib reiterated the solidarity of the Syndicate Coordination Committee as he called for a sit-in near the presidential palace on Tuesday to mark a “historic day” in its wage raise demands.

“The government through its executive authority should refer the wage scale to parliament without hesitation,” Gharib said on Monday at a sit-in that the SCC organized near the industry ministry in Beirut's Adliyeh area.

The Lebanese Forces and Phalange parties reiterated their rejection on Monday of adopting the 1960 electoral law that is based on winners-take-all system in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

LF bloc MP George Adwan revealed that the party is seeking to press forward the possibility of holding a parliamentary session to ensure that the 1960 law will not be adopted during the polls set to be held on June 9 and to obstruct attempts to extend the tenure of the current parliament.

Speaker Nabih Berri hinted on Monday that the parliamentary elections set to be held on June 9 will be postponed as he warned that security and not the polls were a priority.

“Just take a look at the very worrying security situation,” Berri told several local newspapers.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel stressed on Monday that the political consensus over ending the security chaos across the country facilitated the tasks of the security forces to control the situation across the country.

“The law will be implemented with all the available means,” Charbel said in comments to As Safir newspaper.

Security forces on Sunday foiled an attempt to liberate a prisoner from a hospital in Tripoli, only eight days after gunmen stormed another hospital in the northern city and set free a man under arrest for allegedly being involved in the shooting at Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami's convoy.

“Prisoner H. M. slashed parts of his body with a sharp object and after he was rushed to one of the city's hospitals, a group of people arrived and tried to liberate him, prompting security forces to fire in the air to disperse them,” state-run National News Agency reported.