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Lebanese President Joseph Aoun told CNN on Friday that the Lebanese people are fed up with the war with Israel.
He said Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem does not represent the Lebanese people. "These people are not yours," Aoun told Qassem, as he accused Iran of using Lebanon as a "bargaining chip" in its conflict with the U.S. and Israel.
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Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Friday urged Iran to stop treating his country, where Israel and the Tehran-backed Hezbollah are at war, as a "bargaining chip" in its negotiations with Washington on the Middle East conflict.
"If I may address a word to Iran, it is this: have mercy on our south, stop treating it and its people as merely a bargaining chip to improve the terms of your negotiations," Salam told a press conference for a U.N. aid appeal for Lebanon.
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U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops were seen Friday at an entrance of the village of Dibbine, near the town of Marjayoun, after Israeli forces withdrew following intense clashes with Hezbollah fighters.
The ceasefire agreement calls for Lebanon's armed forces to take control of security zones in Lebanon from which the militants would be banned.
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U.S. President Donald Trump told journalists in a press conference that he thinks "progress is made" in the Lebanese-Israeli conflict.
"It would be really nice if Lebanon could have some peace," Trump said. "Lebanon has been under attack for so many years and always like an underdog, and it would be really nice if it could end," he added.
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Lebanon's judiciary has charged two anti-Hezbollah activists in absentia with inciting Israeli attacks against the Iran-backed group and sentenced them to 15 years in prison, a judicial official told AFP on Friday.
It is the harshest sentence yet against activists expressing support for Israel, which has officially been at war with Lebanon for decades.
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Israeli ministers voiced strong opposition to a proposed ceasefire with Lebanon during a security cabinet meeting, though no official vote was held.
The pause came after Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem rejected the U.S.-backed proposal, demanding instead a "comprehensive" ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon.
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The U.N. on Friday more than doubled its aid appeal for Lebanon as the country reels from Israel's war against Iran-backed Hezbollah, saying nearly $640 million was needed over six months.
"The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is severe and deteriorating," the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA said in a revised appeal for the country.
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Israeli strikes overnight in the south Lebanon city of Tyre killed seven people, a source from Lebanon's civil defense told AFP on Friday, despite a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
One strike near the Jabal Amel hospital killed four people, wounded seven and lightly damaged the facility, while another elsewhere in the city killed three and wounded five, including two children.
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The Israeli military said on Thursday that one of its soldiers was killed in southern Lebanon, the first fatality since the announcement of a new ceasefire plan.
Captain Eitan Shmuel Lemberg, 21, "fell in combat" the military said in a brief statement. A military source told AFP that he was killed by a missile fired by Hezbollah at an Israeli tank.
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Israeli strikes on south Lebanon and West Bekaa killed eight people and wounded 15 others on Thursday, hours after a new ceasefire was announced between Lebanon and Israel, the Health Ministry said.
An Israeli strike in on Sohmor in West Bekaa killed five people, while another attack near the southern city of Tyre killed three more, the ministry said.
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