Spotlight
Israel’s military chief, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, has visited Israeli air defense soldiers near the border with Lebanon, saying Israel was aware of Hezbollah's capabilities demonstrated in a video released by the group and has solutions for such threats.
“We of course have infinitely greater capabilities," he said.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Wednesday threatened the nearby island of Cyprus if it opened its airports and bases to Israel in the event of total war with Hezbollah.
"Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon would mean that the Cypriot government is part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war," Nasrallah warned in a televised address commemorating slain Hezbollah commander Taleb Abdallah.

Hezbollah attacked Wednesday a command center in Kiryat Shmona and Israeli soldiers' posts in Metula, in response to Israeli strikes on south Lebanon.
The group said it attacked with suicide drones Israeli soldiers in Metula as Israeli warplanes raided the southern towns of Yaroun, Borghlieh and al-Khiam.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein met Tuesday in Beirut with Speaker Nabih Berri over the situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border, after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other officials in Jerusalem.
Israel and Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, have traded near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel which triggered war in the Gaza Strip.

Relative calm engulfed southern Lebanon on Sunday and Monday as Hezbollah appeared to have suspended its cross-border attacks against Israel for the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Two Lebanon-based United Nations officials have said that they are "deeply concerned" about the recent escalation on the Israel-Lebanon border.
"The danger of miscalculation leading to a sudden and wider conflict is very real," said U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and head of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Aroldo Lazaro.
Hezbollah on Saturday said it attacks Israel’s Meron air control base with guided missiles as part of its response to Israel’s assassination of senior military commander Taleb Abdallah.
In a statement, Hezbollah said the attack destroyed parts of the base’s equipment and radars.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday said Israel will not join a trilateral framework proposed by France to defuse tensions with Lebanon, accusing Paris of “hostile policies against Israel.”
“While the State of Israel is fighting the most just war in its history, France has shown hostility and enmity against us, while blatantly ignoring the atrocities committed by Hamas’ terrorists against children and women -- just because they are Jews,” Gallant said in a post on the X platform.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has noted that he is “not carrying out an initiative, but rather an effort to finalize the presidential juncture.”
“We agree with Speaker Nabih Berri that the priority is for consensus over a president prior to the election, which would give a success chance to the new presidential tenure, contrary to the approach of confrontation,” Bassil said at a press conference that he held to announce the outcome of his meetings.

Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin is visiting Lebanon next week, after he met at the Vatican last week with French Presidential Envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Parolin and Le Drian discussed the situation in Lebanon, the presidential crisis, and the results of the Quintet's efforts, media reports said.
