Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Thursday stressed that the presidential election is “a national juncture and not only Christian or Maronite.”

A 4.2-magnitude earthquake hit five kilometers south of Lebanon's eastern Hermel region on Wednesday evening, Lebanon's National Center for Geophysics said.

A delegation from the Progressive Socialist Party-led Democratic Gathering bloc on Wednesday held talks with MP Michel Mouawad.

The Lebanese rescue and medical team has managed to pull out several people from the rubble in earthquake-stricken Turkey.

A Lebanese ministerial delegation led by caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib met Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss earthquake relief efforts.

The delegation had earlier met with Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad, expressing its "solidarity with the Syrian people in this plight" and noting that Lebanon "will offer its available capabilities to assist in the relief efforts," the National News Agency said.

Lebanese national Bassel Habkouk was pulled out Wednesday from the rubble of a destroyed hotel in the earthquake-hit Turkish city of Antakya amid ongoing efforts to rescue two more Lebanese citizens trapped under the debris.

Habkouk hails from the southern town of Maghdouche.

Several Lebanese nationals have been reported as missing in Turkey following the devastating earthquake there.

Lebanese Ambassador to Turkey Ghassan al-Muallem said the embassy is following up with Turkish authorities on the situation of five Lebanese who are “under the rubble.”

The Higher Judicial Council on Tuesday failed to convene over the port blast case due to lack of quorum.

Speaking to MTV, State Prosecutor Judge Ghassan Oueidat said he positively views the session’s postponement because he wants “the solution to come from (Council) Chief Judge Suheil Abboud.”

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati formed Tuesday a ministerial delegation that will head Wednesday to Syria to meet with Syrian authorities over the deadly earthquake.

Syrian state media and rescuers said at least 1,602 people have died in the earthquake and more than 3,600 have been injured across the country.

Lebanon's battered commercial banks on Tuesday closed their doors to customers in protest of a recent court ruling that forced one of the country's largest banks to pay out two of its depositors their trapped savings in cash.

The Association of Banks in Lebanon, which lobbies for the banks, released a statement calling the action an "open-ended strike" and criticized the court ruling, claiming it was detrimental to all depositors, because the banks cannot afford to pay out everyone else's savings in full.