An Israeli military unit combed on Wednesday the area at the eastern bank of Wazzani River, the state-run National News Agency reported.

NNA said the 40-member patrol was protected by three Merkava tanks.

The families of abducted soldiers and policemen blocked on Wednesday the al-Qalamoun highway in the North in protest against the cabinet's failure to end the captivity of their sons, two days after they warned of a “Day of Anger.”

The relatives blocked the two lanes of the highway with sand, iron barricades and cement blocks.

Unknown assailants tossed a grenade near an army checkpoint in the northern city of Tripoli, without causing casualties, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

The attack in the early hours of Wednesday took place in the area of al-Mankoubine in Beddawi, it said.

Clashes erupted between the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and al-Nusra Front in the Eastern Mountain range along the border with Syria, media reports said on Wednesday.

Al-Liwaa newspaper reported that various kinds of machinguns, rockets and arms were used during the battles in the Qusaya area in the eastern Bekaa valley, where the PFLP-GC has a military base.

The extension of parliament's mandate has become a foregone conclusion after both Speaker Nabih Berri and al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc leader MP Fouad Saniora hinted that there was no option but to extend the term of lawmakers despite a veto by influential Christian figures.

Saniora told al-Mustaqbal daily in remarks published on Wednesday that he discussed with Berri a day earlier the extension of the legislature's tenure.

Bishop Samir Mazloum denied on Wednesday reports saying that a meeting will be held for the Maronite leaders at Bkirki to discuss the presidential deadlock, revealing that dialogue between Maronites reached a dead end.

Israeli forces fired eight flares Tuesday evening from their posts in the occupied Shebaa Farms towards the nearby Mount Hermon, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

The flares were fired above the al-Marsad post and Mt. Hermon's western heights, NNA said.

Khaled and Walid al-Hujeiri were released on Tuesday evening after they were kidnapped in separate incidents in the Bekaa last week.

Khaled was abducted along with Mustafa al-Hujeiri from the town of Taalbaya while Walid was nabbed along with two other members of the al-Hujeiri family in the Masharii al-Qaa border area near Arsal.

Hizbullah captive fighter Imad Ayyad, who is being held by the Free Syrian Army, has addressed a second video message to his father, in which he expresses surprise over “lack of efforts” to secure his release and stresses the need to communicate with Hizbullah officials.

“I'm doing well and I'm being treated in a very good manner,” Ayyad says in the YouTube video.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday stressed the need to "follow a single standard in the implementation of security plans in all regions and towards all parties and political forces,” while calling for the election of a “consensual” president according to March 14's recent initiative.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc also condemned “the attacks on the army and its officers and soldiers,” stressing that “this behavior serves the goals of Lebanon's enemies.”