Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri linked Friday the Israeli escalation in south Lebanon to the push for normalizing relations between Israel and the Arab world, days after U.S. President Donald Trump said Syria's president backed normalization with Israel in the future.

Trump had said after meeting the Syrian interim President that Ahmad al-Sharaa backed normalization with Israel in the future but "they have a lot of work to do". The meeting took place in Riyadh on Wednesday, a day after Trump announced he was lifting sanctions on the war-battered country.

The army on Friday announced that it has so far arrested 86 people who were involved in firing weapons in the air in connection with the municipal and mayoral elections, while also seizing arms and ammunition.

U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus will return to Lebanon in around a week, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported on Friday.

The man convicted of stabbing Salman Rushdie on a New York lecture stage in 2022, leaving the prizewinning author blind in one eye, is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday.

A jury found Hadi Matar, 27, guilty of attempted murder and assault in February.

The United States has sanctioned “a network of senior Hezbollah officials and financial facilitators,” the U.S. State Department said.

A clash erupted Friday morning between a UNIFIL patrol and residents of the southern town of al-Jmeijmeh in the Bint Jbeil district.

Israel's military said it killed Thursday a Hezbollah militant in a strike on south Lebanon, the second such attack in two days despite a ceasefire with the Iran-backed militant group.

"Earlier today, an IDF (military) aircraft struck and eliminated a Hezbollah terrorist in the area of Arnoun who attempted to re-establish Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure in the area," a military statement said.

By Mireille Rebeiz, Dickinson College

(THE CONVERSATION) Within a span of two weeks from late April to early May 2025, Israel launched two aerial attacks ostensibly targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon: The first, on April 27, struck a building in Beirut's southern suburbs; the second, an assault in southern Lebanon, left one person dead and eight others injured.

An Israeli drone strike on Thursday targeted a bulldozer near a factory between the southern towns of Yohmor al-Shaqif and Arnoun, causing one casualty, the National News Agency said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday pointed out that U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia and the political steps decided “prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the right path leading to a Palestinian state."