Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus held a “constructive” meeting with President Joseph Aoun on Saturday morning as she kicked off an official visit to Lebanon, the Presidency said.

As Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus is due in Beirut in a diplomatic bid to resolve several outstanding issues between Lebanon and Israel, Israel carried out Friday a strike on south Lebanon's port city of Sidon, killing a Hamas commander, despite a truce reached in late November.

A senior official told al-Joumhouria newspaper that the three Lebanese leaders - Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun - will tell Ortagus that Lebanon's priority is the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the five points where they are still deployed in south Lebanon and the cessation of Israeli attacks and violations.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned Friday an Israeli strike on the port city of Sidon as a "flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and a breach of the November 27 ceasefire.

Hamas commander Hassan Farhat was killed in the strike on his apartment along with his daughter and his son, also a member of the Palestinian group’s military wing.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said that the municipal elections will not be postponed despite the devastation caused by more than 13-monthes of war with Israel.

"Postponing the elections is absolutely out of the question," Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Thursday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Thursday that “the time has come for unifying arms Lebanon,” adding that “this is what was stipulated in the Taif Agreement.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Thursday that negotiations are ongoing over the border dispute with Lebanon and the release of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.

After meeting his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot in Paris, Saar said that Turkey is playing a negative role in Syria and Lebanon, adding that Israel wants "the stability of Lebanon, the continuation of the ceasefire, and liberating Lebanon from Iranian occupation."

Two people were wounded Thursday in an Israeli drone strike on a car on the Bint Jbeil road in south Lebanon, the Health Ministry said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that its old ally Hezbollah can no longer have a military role and has to abide by the Lebanese constitution and rules.

"We had an understanding but it no longer exists," Bassil said Tuesday, accusing Hezbollah of going to a war that was not in Lebanon's interest. "This has greatly weakened our relations, but it is still a Lebanese party and we have to talk to them just like we talk to all the other parties."

Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus will arrive in Beirut in the coming hours, al-Jadeed TV said Wednesday.

Ortagus had stressed the need to fully disarm Hezbollah and said Washington wants diplomatic negotiations and peace between Lebanon and Israel, but newly elected President Joseph Aoun assured that Hezbollah’s arms will not be removed by force and that normalization with Israel was not on the table.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said an Israeli strike early Tuesday on Beirut's southern suburbs was a "clear breach" of a ceasefire that largely ended more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

In a statement issued by his office, Salam condemned the strike as "a clear breach of the arrangements of the cessation of hostilities" and a "flagrant violation of United Nations Resolution 1701," a Security Council decision that ended a 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah and served as the foundation of the November truce.