Hezbollah announced Wednesday that it will deal with the cabinet’s decision on disarming it by the year’s end “as if it does not exist,” adding that it is “open to dialogue” and to “discussing a national security strategy.”

An Israeli drone strike on Wednesday targeted a motorcycle in the southern town of Touline, causing casualties, the state-run National News Agency said.

MP Ali Ammar of Hezbollah’s Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc announced Wednesday that “Hezbollah’s leadership is evaluating what happened yesterday” as to the government’s unprecedented decision to monopolize arms before the year’s end.

Cabinet has decided to rebaptize a thoroughfare named after former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in favor of late Lebanese musician and playwright Ziad Rahbani, a move many welcomed on Wednesday.

The decision marks the end of an era and a rupture with the authoritarian rule of former Syrian leaders Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar -- close allies of Lebanon's Hezbollah -- who from Damascus held Lebanon in a stranglehold for almost three decades.

The Israeli army said Wednesday that it killed a Hezbollah operative in the Bekaa region of east Lebanon who it said was directing militant cells in Syria.

"Yesterday evening (Tuesday), the (Israeli air force)... struck the terrorist Hossam Qasem Ghorab, a Hezbollah terrorist who operated from Lebanese territory to direct terrorist cells in Syria," the army said in a statement.

Lebanon's government on Tuesday tasked the army with developing a plan to restrict arms to the state by year end, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said, an unprecedented move that paves the way for disarming Hezbollah.

The government "tasked the Lebanese Army with setting an implementation plan to restrict weapons" to the army and other government forces "before the end of this year," with the plan to be presented to the cabinet by the end of this month, Salam told a press conference after a nearly six-hour cabinet session headed by President Joseph Aoun.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem said Tuesday his group would not accept any timetable on handing over its weapons to the Lebanese state while Israeli strikes continue, as the government held a session on the issue.

"Any timetable presented for implementation under... Israeli aggression cannot be agreed to," Qassem said in a televised address, urging the state to develop "plans to face the pressure and threats" and not to "deprive the resistance (Hezbollah) of its capacities and strength."

Cabinet convened Tuesday to discuss restricting the possession of weapons to the state, in a session attended by Hezbollah and Amal ministers.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri was quoted as saying that Amal and Hezbollah are open to any positive discussion but will not accept any decision "that does not take the national interest into account."

As cabinet convened Tuesday to discuss a thorny and controversial plan to disarm Hezbollah under heavy U.S. pressure, Hezbollah and its ally Amal were reportedly trying to postpone the discussion after overnight protests that Hezbollah said were "spontaneous".

Supporters of the group had roamed the streets of the capital and its southern suburbs on motorbikes, in a show of defiance reflecting their rejection of Hezbollah’s disarmament.

Videos and pictures of over 100 black-clad young people outside a restaurant in Khalde have sparked concern in the country, hours before a crucial cabinet session that will discuss the thorny issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament.