French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot is scheduled to arrive in Beirut on Thursday evening to meet with President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji, and Army chief Rodolphe Haykal.

Al-Liwaa newspaper said the talks will discuss the preparations for an international conference to support the Lebanese Army, set to be held in Paris on March 5, with approximately 50 countries expected to attend.

Just a few days separate us from Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal's presentation to Cabinet of his plan to restrict weapons north of the Litani River.

Upon his return from the United States, where he has been holding a series of meetings since the beginning of the week, Cabinet will convene at the Baabda Palace and Haykal will attend to explain the details of the second phase of the plan, complete with maps, figures and dates, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported.

The Israeli army said it has killed over the past year 60 Hezbollah members and dismantled structures and weapons depots.

In a post on the X platform, the Israeli army said its troops assisted in directing ground and aerial fire in hundreds of focused operations in 2025.

President Joseph Aoun strongly condemned Wednesday the Israeli airplanes' dropping of toxic chemical substances over lands and border villages in south Lebanon.

UNIFIL had earlier condemned the Israeli army's "deliberate and planned actions" that limited peacekeepers’ ability to undertake their mandated activities and put their health and that of civilians at risk.

UNIFIL peacekeepers said two Israeli drones hovered aggressively above them when they were on a routine patrol near Kafer Kela on Tuesday morning.

One of the drones was carrying an unidentified object and had entered a range that constituted an immediate threat to the safety and security of peacekeepers.

Lebanon's relationship with Syria is "radically different" since the fall of former President Bashar Assad, the senior Lebanese minister tasked with managing the country's relations with its neighbor said on Tuesday.

"Under the Assad regime, Lebanon was de facto under Syrian tutelage. The Syrian regime interfered in domestic affairs in so many ways," Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri told The Associated Press. "The present Syrian government is neither interested in hegemony over Lebanon nor is it interfering in our internal affairs."

Israel's army will appoint its highest-ranking Muslim woman to replace chief Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee, the public face for Palestinians and Lebanese of its military campaigns, a military source said on Tuesday.

Major Ella Waweya will replace Lieutenant Colonel Avichay Adraee, who for people in Gaza and Lebanon is indelibly linked with Israel's deadly bombing campaigns and known for what are seen as provocative uses of colloquial Arabic, koranic verses and humor in his messages.

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem on Tuesday warned Israel that his group can also inflict “pain” at the right “timing,” amid an intensification of Israeli strikes on Hezbollah members and alleged arms depots.

Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal met Tuesday with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and Assistant Secretary of War for International Security Affairs Daniel Zimmerman, as he held a series of security meetings in Washington.

Haykal will also meet with the Acting Director of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Michael Miller.

The Israeli army significantly increased its strikes on Lebanon in January 2026,

after the Lebanese army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm Hezbollah, covering the area south of the Litani river, around 30 kilometers from the Israeli border.