Telecommunications Minister Boutros Harb stated on Thursday that parties claiming to be defending the rights of the Christians are the same ones hampering the election of a president and thus harming the Christians' right to have a Maronite head of state.

“Those raising the slogan of defending the Christians' rights and the National Pact are deluding the people that the lingering conflict over positions is between Muslims and Christians,” said Harb in a press conference.

The Lebanese army arrested thirty Palestinians on Thursday against the backdrop of a clash that erupted a day earlier in the northern refugee camp of al-Beddawi, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The army cordoned off the camp setting checkpoints and taking strict security measures that led to the arrest of the detainees.

The Lebanese army shelled the positions of the Islamic State group on the outskirts of the border towns of Ras Baalbek and al-Qaa, the state-run National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

From their positions in the northern Bekaa valley, the army bombarded the IS positions with heavy artillery.

Three people were wounded, including an Internal Security Forces member, in an exchange of fire in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Bass in the southern city of Tyre, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

An ISF patrol was removing a construction violation in the camp of al-Bass near the EDL company in Tyre when the owners of the violations and several members form the camp started acting roughly with the security members.

Prime Minister Tammam Salam stressed on Wednesday that Lebanon is in the heart of the battle against terrorism and must help with the efforts to eradicate it, as he emphasized that the first step to end disorder is through the election of a president.

“Lebanon is in the heart of the battle against terrorism. It is directly involved with the reduction of violent extremism that has made our region and the world a bloody panel,” said Salam in a speech at the Grand Serail during the launching of official talks over the national plan to fight terrorism.

Lebanon's Hizbullah, which is taking part in Syria's conflict, has said that it supports the latest ceasefire deal agreed by the U.S. and Russia but vowed to continue fighting against the Islamic State group and Fateh al-Sham Front, which was known as al-Nusra Front before renouncing its affiliation with al-Qaida.

The Lebanese army detected an Israeli spy device in a liberated part of Lebanese land along the occupied Shebaa Farms, the Army Command Orientation directorate said in a statement on Saturday.

“On September 9, 2016 an army task force discovered a spy device that belongs to the Israeli enemy inside liberated Lebanese lands near the occupied Shebaa Farms. An army patrol headed to the location and found that the Israeli enemy has already removed the device and moved it inside occupied lands,” said the statement.

The Lebanese army arrested two Lebanese citizens on the coastal city of Jbeil, north of Beirut for helping Syrian nationals illegally enter into Lebanon, the Army Command Orientation Directorate said in a statement on Saturday.

“An Intelligence bureau patrol arrested two Lebanese citizens in Jbeil, Youssef Shawkat Amer and Ali Qassem al-Ajami, on charges of smuggling six Syrians into Lebanon,” said the statement.

A doctor at Baalbek's hospital of Ibn Sina who was kidnapped on Tuesday was freed Friday at midnight, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday.

Doctor Saleh al-Shal, a medical director at the hospital, was freed by his kidnappers in Baalbek's town of Douris, NNA added.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi rejected on Saturday the calls for holding a constituent assembly and said that reducing the Christians presence is totally rejected, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Saturday.

“We have not implemented the Taef accord yet. What constituent assembly are they talking about?” sources from Bkirki quoted al-Rahi as saying.