Speaker Nabih Berri has emphasized that the Foreign Ministry's decision to expel the Iranian ambassador "cannot pass."

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil visited Friday President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Speaker Nabih Berri and Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, in a series of meetings aimed at averting civil strife.

Bassil urged all Lebanese to maintain a patriotic stance and spare their children the bitterness of internal conflict. "One hundred days of foreign war are better than a single day of civil war — though we want neither," he said, as he accused certain domestic actors of seeking an internal conflict as a means to end the Israeli aggression, a clear reference to the FPM’s long-standing rivals, the Lebanese Forces.

Unprecedented security measures have started to be taken in the capital Beirut, reinforced by the deployment of additional army and Internal Security Forces units, and the deployment of military and plainclothes intelligence patrols, media reports said.

Nearly a month into the Middle East war, Lebanon is facing a deepening humanitarian crisis that now risks teetering over into a catastrophe, the U.N. refugee agency warned Friday.

Since March 2, more than a million people -- one in five residents -- have been forced to flee their homes, said the UNHCR.

The Hezbollah members fighting in the area south of the Litani River are the sons of the area's villages and towns, supported by fighters from the Bekaa Valley and other regions, including foreigners, a media report said.

Lebanon received negative intelligence from Egypt indicating that the Israeli war is likely to be protracted, given the absence of any decisive signs of an imminent ceasefire, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.

In the past hours an Egyptian security delegation arrived in Beirut following a directive from the Egyptian leadership to initiate engagement with Lebanese authorities aimed at reducing tensions on the Lebanese scene and finding solutions, An-Nahar newspaper said.

The Saudi Embassy in Beirut said in a statement Friday that the decision is related to the “repercussions of the current events” taking place in Lebanon.

The embassy added that Saudi Arabia’s travel ban to Lebanon has been in place for years.

In a letter Friday to the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, mothers of soldiers called for an end to the further ground offensive into Lebanon.

The group, Parents of Combat Soldiers, includes 600 military parents. The letter said the military was receiving orders from politicians who are ready to “sacrifice” its children, and urged Zamir to focus on a political solution. “Four soldiers have already been killed in Lebanon, how many more will sacrifice their lives in vain?!” said the letter.

The Israeli army shelled Friday al-Naqoura, al-Bayyada and Shamaa in south Lebanon with white phosphorus bombs after Hezbollah claimed attacks against troops trying to advance there.

The troops were advancing from Deir al-Seryan toward Al-Qussair, media reports said, while Hezbollah claimed attacks on troops and tanks in Naqoura, Qantara, Deir al-Seryan, al-Taybeh, Khiam, al-Bayyada, al-Qawzah, Beit Leef and Debel.