President Joseph Aoun on Wednesday called Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal and offered condolences over the two soldiers who were killed Tuesday in clashes with drug barons in Baalbek’s al-Sharawneh neighborhood.

“Once again, the army is paying with the blood of its men to protect Lebanese society from the scourge of drugs on the one hand, and to enforce the law on the other. Yesterday's two martyrs have joined a long line of comrades who sacrificed their most precious possession in fulfillment of their oath, reaffirming the military institution's determination, in cooperation with other security forces, to continue enforcing the law, pursuing perpetrators, and curbing crime in all its forms,” Aoun said.

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat voiced Wednesday his support to Lebanese Army chief Rodolphe Haykal after U.S. senators harshly criticized him.

A scheduled visit of Haykal to the U.S. was cancelled Tuesday after U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham posted on the X platform that Haykal is "a giant setback for efforts to move Lebanon forward because of a reference to Israel as the enemy and his weak almost non-existent effort to disarm Hezbollah."

Two soldiers were killed on Tuesday night in a clash between the army and wanted drug dealers in the Sharawneh neighborhood of Baalbek.

Three other soldiers were wounded during the clashes and the wanted drug dealer, who fired at the army, was killed.

The Israeli military said Wednesday it had killed two Hezbollah members in strikes the previous day in south Lebanon, where Israel has carried out repeated attacks despite the ceasefire.

The Israeli military said in a statement it had "struck and eliminated two Hezbollah terrorists in the areas of Bint Jbeil and Blida in southern Lebanon" on Tuesday.

One person was killed Wednesday in an Israeli strike on a car in the southern town of al-Tiri.

Eleven other were wounded in the strike, the health ministry said, as a school bus with students on board was passing near the targeted car.

Lebanon said an Israeli strike on Tuesday night on a crowded Palestinian refugee camp in the country's south killed at least 13 people, as Israel said it struck a Hamas compound.

A senior Arab official has told Lebanese officials that all the Israeli reports about an escalation or broad war on Lebanon are fabricated and baseless.

According to al-Joumhouria newspaper, the Arab official said the Israeli officials’ public statements against Lebanon are not being reflected in closed-door meetings they are holding with international envoys, in which they are stressing that “there will be no broad war on the northern front.”

President Joseph Aoun said that Hezbollah's military wing has ended and that all the group wants now is a "decent" end. The President had many times called for dialogue with Hezbollah and has been known to have a soft approach to the group's disarmament.

"They come to me knowing this (that they have ended militarily) but they are keen on securing an honorable end and a decent exit. This is exactly what we are striving to achieve, away from populist speeches prevailing in the country ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections," Aoun told Tuesday the Asas Media news portal, although he later expressed his commitment to disarm the group and expand the state's authority to all of Lebanon.

Speaker Nabih Berri has received new messages indicating that Tehran does not intend to escalate in Lebanon and that Hezbollah’s latest stances are related to the Lebanese political life, the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal reported on Tuesday.

Hezbollah’s new positions are linked to “the need of each group to mobilize its supporters until the final course of the parliamentary elections becomes clear,” seeing us the upcoming polls will “reflect the sizes of the domestic forces and the balances of the coming political period,” Tehran was quoted as telling Berri.

An Israeli drone targeted Tuesday a car in the southern town of Bint Jbeil, killing one person.

The national News Agency said the strike killed Ali Sheaito, who works at the Union of Municipalities of Bint Jbeil.