Spotlight
An Israeli drone strike targeted an open area near a gas station in the southern town of Aitaroun on Monday, causing no casualties, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The head of the U.S.-led ceasefire monitoring committee, U.S. general Jasper Jeffers, will return Wednesday to Lebanon to meet with President Joseph Aoun, Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told his visitors that Israel’s airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday was aimed at “obstructing the Iranian-U.S. negotiations.”

Interior Minister Ahmad al-Hajjar revealed Monday that “there are diplomatic contacts with the ceasefire monitoring committee in order to secure holding the municipal elections in a proper manner.”

The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, appealed to all sides to halt any actions that could further undermine the ceasefire, after an Israeli airstrike targeted a hangar in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

Limiting weapons to the hand of the Lebanese state is “a decision that has been taken and it is unacceptable to return to the rhetoric of war,” President Joseph Aoun reiterated on Monday.

Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah store of "precision-guided missiles" in a southern Beirut suburbs air strike on Sunday that prompted President Joseph Aoun to call for French and U.S. intervention.
"Under the instruction of Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, the (military) has strongly attacked infrastructure in Beirut where Hezbollah's precision-guided missiles were stored," a statement from Netanyahu's office said.

President Joseph Aoun condemned the Israeli airstrike that targeted a hangar in Beirut's southern suburbs on Sunday afternoon, urging the U.S. and France to take action.
"The United States and France, as guarantors of the cessation of hostilities agreement, must assume their responsibilities and compel Israel to immediately cease its attacks," Aoun said in a statement.

Israeli jets struck a hangar in Beirut's southern suburbs Sunday after the Israeli army issued a warning about an hour earlier, marking the third Israeli strike on the area since a ceasefire took effect in late November.
A huge plume of smoke billowed over the area after the strike. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Lebanon's health ministry said an Israeli drone strike on a border town Sunday killed one person, the latest attack despite a ceasefire that ended a war between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
