Syria’s justice minister Mazhar al-Wais visited Tuesday Beirut to discuss with his Lebanese counterpart the file of the Syrian prisoners held in Lebanon.

Among the prisoners are Syrians who were involved in battles against the Lebanese Army. These will not be freed or transferred to Syria and are not part of the discussions, Lebanese Minister of Justice Adel Nassar said.

The Lebanese file will be activated in the near future and will be the next file after Gaza, Western diplomatic sources said.

The sources added, in remarks to al-Binaa newspaper, that “the military, security and political repercussions of the Gaza agreement will not only affect Lebanon but rather the entire region.”

The Tannourine Mineral Water company on Tuesday stressed that its bottled water meets the country’s health and safety standards, after the Health Ministry ordered its suspension and the removal of its products from the market over a detected bacteria.

“The sample that was relied on was not collected according to the applicable norms,” Tannourine’s CEO said at a press conference, noting that the sample was taken in the absence of any company representative and that the related test that was conducted makes the results inaccurate and invalid.

French President Emmanuel Macron lauded Tuesday President Joseph Aoun's "brave decisions to achieve arms monopoly," adding that Paris is determined to organize two conferences for supporting Lebanon.

One of the conferences is to drum up financial aid for the reconstruction of war-hit regions in Lebanon. The second will be to support the Lebanese Army which was tasked with implementing a plan to disarm Hezbollah, but lacks funds and equipment and has said that the Israeli occupation and strikes on south Lebanon are obstructing its deployment there.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Ezzeddine condemned Tuesday Israel's weekend strikes on construction machinery in south Lebanon, describing the attack as "a crime against civilians, the economy and national sovereignty".

Ezzeddine criticized Hezbollah's opponents who call for sovereignty (through Hezbollah's disarmament in order for the state to extend its authority over all Lebanese territory and take the war and peace decisions) and then "fall silent" when Israel violates Lebanon's sovereignty "with such impudence."

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called on the international community to pressure Israel to halt its attacks on Lebanon, as he welcomed the ceasefire in Gaza.

"While our government is committed to the ceasefire (reached in late November between Lebanon and Israel) and is working diligently to extend state authority over all Lebanese territory with its own forces and to monopolize weapons, the country is still exposed to almost daily Israeli aggressions," Salam said Monday, referring to the government's decision to disarm Hezbollah.

Human Rights Watch has urged Lebanon to pursue justice two years after an Israeli strike killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six others, including two from AFP.

The October 13, 2023 attack killed Issam Abdallah and wounded two of his colleagues from Reuters, as well as two people from broadcaster Al Jazeera, and AFP's Dylan Collins and Christina Assi as they were working in south Lebanon near the Israeli border.

The Health Ministry on Monday suspended the operations of the Tannourine Mineral Water company, ordering that its water bottles be pulled from the market due to their contamination with the pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria.

Israel’s destruction of dozens of bulldozers and excavators in Msayleh was aimed at telling the Lebanese state and people that Israel will not allow the rebuilding of their destroyed towns before Lebanon agrees to Israel’s demand of “direct negotiations,” ministerial sources said.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam "strongly" condemned Monday Israeli threats to a Lebanese Engineer advocating for the reconstruction of his community in south Lebanon, re-iterating the government's full commitment to the reconstruction (of war-hit regions) and to the right of all residents of the South to "a safe and sustainable return."

Mazraani is a Lebanese activist and engineer from the southern border town of Houla. He founded the "Gathering of the Residents of the Southern Border Localities" to advocate for the reconstruction of war-hit villages, especially the southern border villages which were badly damaged in the latest Israeli war.