The army on Friday announced the arrest of two men who assaulted the imam of the mosque of the Mt. Lebanon town of Chbaniyeh in an incident apparently related to the sectarian violence between Druze and Sunnis in neighboring Syria.

President Joseph Aoun has stressed that the Lebanese Army is doing a “mighty job” and that its operations are still ongoing in the area south of the Litani River, despite the “geographic challenges and limited capabilities.”

In his latest meeting with the ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon, Speaker Nabih Berri asked U.S. Ambassador Lisa Johnson and French Ambassador Herve Magro about their countries’ pledges regarding the ceasefire in Lebanon, reiterating that “Hezbollah has committed to the agreement while Israel is carrying out with its attacks,” a media report said.

President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and PM Nawaf Salam have received an Israeli message through Qatar asking that Lebanon hold political negotiations with Israel instead of holding indirect negotiations through military officers, An-Nahar newspaper reported on Friday.

Lebanese authorities warned Hamas Friday that it would face the "harshest measures" if it carried out any attacks from Lebanon.

The warning by the Higher Defense Council, Lebanon's top military body, came weeks after several Lebanese and Palestinians were detained on suspicion of firing rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel.

Lebanon's health ministry said two people were killed in Israeli strikes in the south of the country on Thursday, despite a fragile ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel.

The United Arab Emirates will lift a ban on its citizens traveling to Lebanon that was imposed during a diplomatic row in 2021, according to a joint statement on Thursday.

The Lebanese Army has dismantled "over 90 percent" of Hezbollah's infrastructure near the border with Israel since a November ceasefire, a security official said.

"We have dismantled over 90 percent of the infrastructure in the area south of the Litani," the official, who requested anonymity as the matter is sensitive, told AFP.

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblat has urged members of the minority community in Syria to reject "Israeli interference" following Israeli threats against Damascus authorities if they harm the Druze.

"Preserving the (Druze) brothers (in Syria) involves rejecting Israeli interference," Jumblat said following a meeting with Druze figures in Beirut to discuss sectarian violence that erupted in Syria this week.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri held talks Wednesday in Ain el-Tineh with the new head of the ceasefire monitoring committee, U.S. major general Michael Leeney, who was accompanied by the committee’s outgoing head Major General Jasper Jeffers.