A young man who killed a 66-year-old lady last week committed his crime with the aim of robbing her money and purchasing drugs, the Internal Security Forces announced on Thursday.

Two other women were wounded in the knife attack in the northern town of Bakhoun in the Dinnniyeh district.

The government on Thursday called for avoiding a full-blown war with Israel, a day after a Hizbullah operation killed two Israeli soldiers in the occupied Shebaa Farms, as it agreed to increase the number of the Internal Security Forces' personnel after managing to find a “middle-ground solution.”

“The cabinet discussed the situations in the South and some ministers expressed their stances in a calm debate during which all parties showed keenness on avoiding a deterioration,” Information Minister Ramzi Jreij announced after a cabinet session at the Grand Serail.

Chairman of Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi arrived in Lebanon on Thursday a day after Hizbullah launched an attack against an Israeli convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms that left two Israeli troops dead.

He expressed upon his arrival in Beirut his congratulations to Hizbullah on its operation, which was in retaliation to an Israeli airstrike on January 18 on Syria's Quneitra region that left six party members and an Iranian general dead.

The March 14 alliance on Thursday urged the Lebanese people to back the government of Prime Minister Tammam Salam and ask it to take into its own hands the decision of war and peace.

Following a meeting, the alliance's general-secretariat encouraged “the Lebanese to stand united behind their government, and ask it to defend them and hold onto the decision of war and peace.”

The General Directorate of State Security detained in the eastern city of Zahle on Thursday an abduction gang that is specialized in smuggling Syrians into Lebanon.

The gang reportedly smuggles Syrians into Lebanese territories and kidnaps people in exchange for ransom.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has received assurances from Arab and Western diplomats that the clashes which took place between Israel and Hizbullah following an attack on an Israeli military convoy would not lead to a full-fledged war.

Salam's visitors were quoted as saying on Thursday that the Prime Minister, who made contacts with the diplomats after the clashes, received guarantees that the international community will exert every effort to preserve stability in Lebanon.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat stressed on Thursday that Lebanon couldn't endure the repercussions of a new war, expressing belief that Israel can't afford to engage in any battle at this stage.

“Hizbullah acted in a smart manner by retaliating to the Israeli airstrike in Quneitra from Syria and not Lebanon,” Jumblat said in comments published in al-Mustaqbal newspaper.

Israel on Thursday buried two soldiers killed in a Hizbullah missile strike that triggered Israeli fire on southern Lebanon, raising tensions between the bitter enemies to their highest in years.

But the Israeli-Lebanese border was calm, and Israeli officials played down the threat of a new war with the Iran-backed group.

The U.N. Security Council condemned on Wednesday the death of a Spanish U.N. peacekeeper during the Israeli military's exchange of fire with Hizbullah in a disputed border area.

The Council condemned his death in the strongest terms and offered its deepest sympathies.

The United States on Wednesday condemned Hizbullah's deadly operation in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms as an "act of violence," urging all parties to refrain from actions that could escalate the situation, as France requested an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said that Washington did not want "an escalation of the situation."