After Cabinet passed a long-awaited banking draft bill that would distribute losses from the 2019 economic crisis amid objections from nine ministers and modest protests, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam appeared a bit agitated as he answered journalists' questions.

The law stipulates that each of the state, the central bank, commercial banks and depositors will share the losses accrued as a result of the financial crisis.

In their upcoming meeting in the United States, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump will the discuss the U.S. peace plan for Gaza, “which is a plan that cannot be separated from the Lebanese file, especially the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament, in addition to reaching security and economic agreements with Lebanon and Syria,” multiple sources said.

“Netanyahu will present to Trump intelligence reports claiming that Hezbollah is seeking to rebuild its military capabilities, in an attempt to obtain a U.S. green light for waging a new operation against Hezbollah,” U.S. sources told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper.

President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam agree that the upcoming parliamentary elections -- scheduled for May 2026 -- should be held on time, a media report said.

Aoun, Berri and Salam are insisting on timely elections, despite some calls for postponing the polls for two years, but they would agree to a “technical” postponement for two or three months, sources close to the three leaders told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.

A man wounded in an Israeli strike last week south of Beirut has died of his injuries, The National News Agency said.

It identified him as a member of Lebanon's General Security agency and said "he happened to be passing at the time of the strike as he returned from service" in the capital, earlier this month.

Lebanon said Israeli strikes near the Syrian border and in the country's south killed three people on Thursday, as Israel said it targeted a member of Iran's elite Quds Force and a Hezbollah operative.

Despite a November 2024 ceasefire that was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon and has maintained troops in five areas it deems strategic.

President Joseph Aoun announced Thursday that the Lebanese state will continue with its arms monopolization plan.

Two people were killed Thursday in an Israeli drone strike on a van in the Hawsh al-Sayyed Ali area in the Bekaa.

An Israeli drone strike had overnight targeted a car in the southern town of Jannata, wounding one person, with Israel claiming that it struck a Hezbollah member.

Violent Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday targeted the Nmeiriyeh and Houmine valleys in south Lebanon, with the Israeli army claiming they hit Hezbollah rocket launchers and military infrastructure.

Israel has kept up regular strikes on Lebanon, usually saying it is targeting Hezbollah, despite a November 2024 ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.

A former Syrian intelligence officer who was close to one of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad's top army commanders was killed in Lebanon, a judicial official said, with the army announcing it had arrested a suspect.

Lebanese authorities are investigating the recent disappearance of a retired security officer whose brother was allegedly involved in the 1986 capture of an Israeli air force navigator, a Lebanese judicial official told AFP.