Lebanon, two international oil giants and state-owned oil and gas company Qatar Energy signed an agreement Sunday for the Qatari firm to join a consortium that will search for gas in the Mediterranean Sea off Lebanon's coast.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday threw his support behind the embattled Beirut port blast investigator, Judge Tarek Bitar, calling on him to “continue his work” despite the recusal lawsuits and the latest judicial standoff.

Hezbollah has praised an attack by a Palestinian gunman that killed seven Israelis as "heroic."

The army closed the entrances of the Shiyyah and Ain el-Remmaneh neighborhoods and took strict security measures in the area on Saturday following calls for rival rallies related to the Beirut port blast case.

The main grouping of the families of the Beirut port blast victims warned Saturday that “there are invitations that are being distributed for rallying today at 11am outside the Justice Palace in Beirut.”

MPs Najat Saliba and Melhem Khalaf have entered the second week of a sit-in inside parliament's chamber, vowing to remain inside until fellow MPs elect a new president.

Saliba and Khalaf, both from the so-called Change bloc, began their protest on January 19, after colleagues met and failed for an 11th time to agree on a new president.

Protests were held on Friday in several predominantly Muslim countries to denounce the recent desecration of Islam's holy book by far-right activists in Sweden and the Netherlands.

The protest in Lebanon ended with people dispersing peacefully.

Opposition and change MPs called Friday in a joint statement for the resumption of the Beirut port blast probe, refusing the appointment of an alternate judge and urging for an indictment to be issued as soon as possible.

MP Waddah al-Sadek who spoke on behalf of the MPs demanded that Public Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat be held accountable over his latest "flagrant violations."

The heated judicial and financial developments in the country are not a “coincidence” and some parties are orchestrating the events behind the scenes, prominent political sources said.

“The Shiite Duo and Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat are leading strenuous attempts to break the presidential deadlock,” the sources told ad-Diyar newspaper in remarks published Friday.

The release of the port probe detainees drew protests from family members of those killed in the blast after state prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat ordered the release Wednesday and filed charges against Judge Tarek Bitar, the top investigator in the case.

Among those released was a U.S. citizen whose detention without trial had drawn threats of sanctions from American officials, and who promptly left Lebanon, circumventing a travel ban.