U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to President Joseph Aoun in their Washington meeting to restrain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and prevent him, as much as possible, from escalating tensions, an informed political source said.

U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to President Joseph Aoun in their Washington meeting to restrain Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and prevent him, as much as possible, from escalating tensions, an informed political source said.

A United Nations committee voted Friday to inscribe a major archaeological site in the West Bank and a set of castles in southern Lebanon as World Heritage sites, despite objections from Israel, which had urged the committee to reject the bids.

The decision at a U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization meeting in South Korea came days after Israel's Foreign Ministry urged the committee to reject efforts to designate the small West Bank town of Sebastia and the Lebanese castles, calling the nominations a "weaponization of cultural heritage."

Israeli forces detonated overnight into Friday houses and culverts in al-Khiam, Majdalzoun, Serbine, Kfartebnit, Haddatha, Tiri and Kounine, while strikes targeted the outskirts of al-Mansouri and Deir Seryan.

The Israeli army also conducted mock raids over several areas in south Lebanon.

Kozo Okamoto, the Japanese militant who took part in a deadly attack on Tel Aviv's airport more than five decades ago, died Thursday in Beirut, the Palestinian group that had been protecting him said. He was 78.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a faction that is the second-largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that Okamoto had been ill for a long time.

Hezbollah branded on Thursday President Joseph Aoun’s recent visit to Washington a failure and said that it showed the government’s submission to a foreign power.

In a statement, the group’s lawmakers said the visit revealed "the extent of subservience and submission to foreign tutelage", adding that it "failed to achieve... an American commitment to the withdrawal of the enemy from our land", referring to Israel.

Speaker Nabih Berri has said that he is waiting to learn what happened in the bilateral meetings in Washington between President Joseph Aoun and Donald Trump and the extent of commitment to implementing the Israeli withdrawals from southern Lebanon.

Israeli forces infiltrated Thursday the southern town of Serbine amid heavy machine gun fire.

Nearby in al-Tiri, forces carried out a large-scale detonation.

MP Hassan Fadlallah of Hezbollah noted Thursday that Israel “has not withdrawn from any meter it has occupied in south Lebanon,” despite the declared start of the pilot zones process.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, who visited Wednesday the southern village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh, said the visit aimed to reassure the people of the south that the state is with them.

Salam, alongside Lebanon’s defense minister and senior military officials, pitched a Lebanese flag near a destroyed building in the town, vowing the government will start rebuilding destroyed homes and infrastructure.