The cabinet will meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss the tenuous security situation in eastern and southern Lebanon with 50 articles on its agenda.

Ministers will discuss the political impasse in Lebanon, in addition to the security chaos, the fate of the abducted Lebanese soldiers and policemen, and the Syrian refugee crisis.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, expressed grave concern over the activities of al-Qaida-affiliated al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the mountainous areas surrounding the northeastern border town of Arsal.

The U.N. official warned of the tremendous impact of such acts on Lebanon's stability and security, in particular, Hizbullah's and other Lebanese groups involvement in the battles ongoing in the neighboring country Syria.

Masked gunmen shot dead a Fatah Movement member on Wednesday evening in the Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in an incident that also left three other people wounded.

State-run National News Agency said Fatah member Walid Yassine “was seriously wounded when gunmen opened fire at his bird shop in the Ain el-Hilweh camp.”

Hizbullah on Wednesday seized control of the so-called Umm Khorj post, from which militants launched their Sunday attack on the party's Ain Saa post in Brital's outskirts, amid reports that a Hizbullah fighter was “captured” in the Bqal al-Assal area in Syria's Qalamun.

In remarks to al-Jadeed TV, a Hizbullah source confirmed that his group had taken Umm Khorj, noting that “it was the launchpad for al-Nusra (Front's) gunmen on Sunday and it strategically overlooks Assal al-Ward's mountains.”

The Internal Security Forces on Wednesday arrested a Syrian man who had been purchasing weapons in Lebanon with the aim of smuggling them into Syria, which he intended to enter via Shebaa's mountains.

“A patrol from the Marjeyoun bureau apprehended the Syrian A. Kh. on charges of conducting suspicious activities in the Hasbaya region,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Wednesday noted that “the most important barter that might occur to secure the release of the captive troops would be Hizbullah's pullout from Syria,” while stressing that “the responsibility for defending Lebanon falls exclusively on the state's shoulders.”

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the bloc also condemned “the recurrent Israeli violations and attacks against southern Lebanon,” describing them as “a blatant violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution (1701) and Lebanese sovereignty.”

Tenants of old rent law buildings on Wednesday renewed their rejection of the new rent law that has been recently passed by parliament, vowing that they will stay in their homes and demanding amendments to what they described as the “black law.”

“This black law will not pass except over our dead bodies. This is a displacement law,” tenants' spokesman Castro Abdullah said at a sit-in in Hamra Street in Beirut, which was briefly blocked by the protesters.

With its recent attack on Israeli troops, Hizbullah may be trying to prove it can fight on two fronts at once -- against both its traditional enemy and Syrian rebels.

But experts say there is little risk of that escalating into a full-blown conflict with Israel.

Four gunmen on Wednesday kidnapped a Lebanese man in Arsal and took him to the outskirts of the northeastern border town, where Syria-based armed groups have a heavy presence.

“Four armed men abducted the citizen Toufiq Wehbe in Arsal and took him to the outskirts,” state-run National News Agency reported.

The March 14 forces on Wednesday condemned “the attempt by terrorist factions coming from Syria to enter Lebanon,” saying they should be confronted by the Lebanese army, while accusing the Free Patriotic Movement of “supporting militias” instead of state institutions.

In a statement issued after its weekly meeting, the March 14 General Secretariat said it deplores “the attempt by terrorist factions coming from Syria to enter Lebanon through the northern Bekaa region and it considers it a blatant violation of national sovereignty.”