Marina El Khawand was 18 when she saw her hometown of Beirut shattered by the giant 2020 port explosion and decided she needed to help.

Today, at 24, she is among five laureates at Thursday's Young Activists Summit awards at the U.N. in Geneva, and described how the trauma of that day spawned a movement that has helped provide free medication and consultation to thousands in need.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called Thursday on supporting the Lebanese army amid an American and domestic campaign against it.

"We should reward the army, its command, soldiers and officers, not question and target their sacred national role against the Israeli aggression and incite against them," Berri said, adding that Israel "has been and still is an obstacle between the Lebanese people and their real, complete independence."

Israeli defense officials assess that Hamas is closely coordinating with Hezbollah and Iran to revive and rebuild the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” as the Israeli army expands strikes in Gaza and southern Lebanon, Israeli officials said on Thursday, according to a Jerusalem Post report.

The officials said that U.S. pressure is, for now, restraining a fiercer Israeli response to “Hezbollah’s ceasefire violations.”

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has reiterated that Lebanon is ready to engage in talks with Israel, adding that he will seek U.S. help in pushing for negotiations.

The prime minister added, in an interview with Bloomberg, that plans to demilitarize the south are "on track" and that the Lebanese Army is expanding its presence there, particularly in areas near the border with Israel.

National Book Awards judges honored authors worldwide on Wednesday night, from Lebanese novelist Rabih Alameddine's "The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)" to Chicago-born poet Patricia Smith's "The Intentions of Thunder."

Alameddine's narrative of intense family bonds within the chaos of modern Lebanon received the fiction prize, while Smith, who has received numerous previous awards for her lyricism and intensity, won for poetry. The nonfiction prize was given to the Canadian Iranian novelist-journalist Omar El Akkad for his fierce indictment of the contemporary West, "One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This."

The Israeli military has accused Hezbollah of violating the terms of a ceasefire by attempting to re-establish itself in southern Lebanon a short distance from Israel’s northern border.

"The Hezbollah terrorist organization has been working to rebuild its capabilities in the village of Beit Leef in southern Lebanon, in a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon," Israel’s military said Wednesday in a statement.

Residents of Lebanon's Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp described their fear and astonishment a day after a deadly strike that Israel said targeted a Hamas compound, a claim the Palestinian militant group rejected.

Tuesday night's raid, which Lebanese authorities said killed 13 people, was the worst since a ceasefire took effect last year between Israel and Hezbollah.

The Israeli army launched strikes on four south Lebanon towns on Wednesday, claiming it was targeting "Hezbollah infrastructure" after warning civilians of the impending raids.

The strikes came a day after 13 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon -- the worst raid since a ceasefire took effect last year between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah, in a statement issued Wednesday, condemned in the strongest terms what it called "the horrific massacre perpetrated by the criminal Zionist enemy last night in the Ain al-Helweh camp in Sidon,” which resulted in the death of thirteen Palestinian refugees and a large number of wounded.

“The attack targeted a densely populated area filled with innocent civilians and children, in a yet another brutal act added to the enemy's dark record of crimes and genocide against Palestinians, Lebanese and the peoples of the region," Hezbollah said.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday called for seeking an urgent U.N. Security Council session over Israel’s attacks in Lebanon.

Commenting on the airstrike that targeted the southern town of al-Tiri earlier in the day and wounded a number of school and university students, Berri decried that Israel considers itself above accountability, lamenting that Lebanon is being condemned and criticized despite “its commitment to Resolution 1701 and the November 2024 cessation of hostilities agreement.”