Parliament convened Wednesday to discuss the 2024 state budget in a heated session during which MPs loudly exchanged accusations.

Change MP Melhem Khalaf left the session after an argument with Speaker Nabih Berri who did not allow Khalaf to speak as the latter criticized holding a session when "the parliament's priority should be to elect a president."

After more than three months of near-daily clashes, Israel in recent weeks appears to have moved to a strategy of targeted killings as daily shelling and strikes on Lebanon's south and Hezbollah's daily attacks on Israeli posts continued.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army bombed several southern border towns, including with white phosphorus bombs.

Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa held talks Tuesday in Ain el-Tineh with Speaker Nabih Berri, after a meeting between Berri and the ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon was postponed.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati has praised again Hezbollah's restraint despite the elevated number of deaths of its members.

The number of people killed by Israeli fire into south Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza has risen to more than 200, with 147 of them belonging to Hezbollah.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Tuesday denied a media report claiming that he intends to quit politics.

Hezbollah targeted Tuesday Israeli troops and positions as Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling targeted Lebanese border villages.

Hezbollah said it targeted the Israeli army's northern command center in response to "recent assassinations and repeated attacks on civilians" in Lebanon and Syria.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday said that Israel will not cease fire on Lebanon’s front without guarantees.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has warned against Israel's attempts to drag Lebanon into a broader war.

In remarks published Monday in al-Joumhouria newspaper, Berri said that israel has expanded the scope of its attacks against Lebanon and is now hitting areas relatively far from the border, deliberately targeting civilians, threatening and promoting proposals that are rejected by Lebanon, such as pushing for Hezbollah to withdraw north of the Litani River, which lies about 30 kilometers north of the border.

Hezbollah attacked overnight through Monday two Israeli forces near the Zar'it post and the Abu Djaj heights and another group of soldiers at the Raheb post as Israel hit several areas of southern Lebanon.

Israeli warplanes struck a two-story house in Shihine and the southern towns of Tayr Harfa, Merwahin and al-Taybeh.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday urged Speaker Nabih Berri to call for successive electoral session to elect a new president “without waiting for any sign from abroad.”

“The election of a president is MPs’ first duty … while continuing to refrain from doing this duty is a blatant treason against the people’s confidence,” al-Rahi warned in his Sunday Mass sermon.