Panama hats and designer sunglasses, champagne buckets and luxury cars: in the mountain resort town of Faqra, Lebanon's economic crisis is not immediately obvious.

Close to a million people in Beirut can no longer afford basic necessities and children are likely to starve to death this year, the charity Save The Children said Wednesday.

Al-Mustaqbal parliamentary bloc on Tuesday blasted Hassan Diab's government over what it called its "suspicious absence" as to Monday's flare-up on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Ex-PM Saad Hariri on Tuesday announced that he does not want to take a stance before the Special Tribunal for Lebanon issues its verdicts over the 2005 assassination of his father ex-PM Rafik Hariri.

The Israeli army said Tuesday that Israel's northern frontier would be "reinforced with advanced fire capabilities, intelligence collection systems and special units."

The announcement comes a day after a flare-up on the border with Lebanon and several days after the Israeli military announced it was beefing up the northern border with infantry troops amid tensions with Hizbullah.

The Lebanese government agreed Tuesday to reinforce coronavirus lockdown measures after a spike in new cases threatened to overwhelm the crisis-hit country's healthcare system.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday warned Hizbullah that Israel is “ready for any scenario,” a day after the Israeli army claimed repelling an infiltration attempt and bombed border areas in south Lebanon.

The Cabinet convened on Tuesday at the Presidential Palace in Baabda to discuss 29 items on its agenda, in addition to the military escalation on Monday by Israel after a security incident at the border led the Jewish state to fire artillery across the frontier.

PM Hassan Diab voiced concern during the Higher Defense Council meeting on Tuesday of Israel’s recent “dangerous military aggression” in South Lebanon, warning of its bid to change the tasks of peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and rules of engagement.

The Higher Defense council convened at the Baabda Presidential Palace for talks on the latest security developments in South Lebanon, and the recommendations to reimpose a lockdown over the resurgence of coronavirus cases in Lebanon.