The UK Defense Senior Advisor to the Middle East and North Africa (DSAME), Air Marshal Martin Sampson, ended a two day visit to Lebanon 18-19 October 2023. This is part of his regional tour, including Egypt and Jordan -– to reassure and show support to the UK’s partners in the region including Lebanon, a British embassy statement said.

Air Marshal Sampson met with Army Commander General Joseph Aoun and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati. In his messages he reiterated the UK’s "unwavering support to the people of Lebanon and the LAF (Lebanese Army)."

Hezbollah said Friday evening that it attacked Israeli troops and inflicted casualties in response to a deadly attack on journalists and civilians a day earlier.

Israel responded by shelling the outskirts of several Lebanese border towns, with Israeli media outlets reporting "fierce" clashes on the border.

Hezbollah executive council member Sheikh Nabil Qaouq on Friday stressed that all Lebanese must know that “the aggression against Gaza is an aggression against the entire region.”

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib on Friday met with the ambassadors of Norwary, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Canada.

“I expressed Lebanon’s deep concern over the continuation of the aggression against Gaza for the fourteenth day, asking their nations to intervene through pressing Israel to halt the escalation,” Bou Habib said.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati on Friday announced that “the government is carrying out all the diplomatic and political contacts to address the situations and halt the Israeli aggression.”

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun on Friday met at his office in Yarze with a delegation of assistants of U.S. Congress members, an army statement said.

Hezbollah is carrying out the “duty” of helping Hamas and the Palestinians “without harming Lebanon,” Hamas representative in Lebanon Ahmad Abdel Hadi said, in reference to Hezbollah’s daily operations against the Israeli army on Lebanon’s border.

Israel shelled Friday southern Lebanese border areas as it searched for a militant who infiltrated into Israel's northern town of Margaliot.

The man shot at Israeli soldiers and managed to return to Lebanon.

The military wing of Hamas said its members fired 30 rockets from south Lebanon into northern Israel Thursday, mainly targeting the towns of Nahariya and Shlomi.

Media reports said the rockets wounded three Israelis with one of the rockets slamming directly into a building in northern Israel.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib announced after meeting the Arab ambassadors in Beirut on Thursday he agreed with them on “the importance of reaching an immediate ceasefire and sending aid to Gaza.”