Lebanese authorities have started “curbing Hezbollah’s influence at the Rafik Hariri International Airport,” after the Airport Security Apparatus revoked the authorizations of a large number of airport workers who are loyal to Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia’s Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has reported.

As Deputy U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Morgan Ortagus is due in Beirut in a diplomatic bid to resolve several outstanding issues between Lebanon and Israel, Israel carried out Friday a strike on south Lebanon's port city of Sidon, killing a Hamas commander, despite a truce reached in late November.

A senior official told al-Joumhouria newspaper that the three Lebanese leaders - Speaker Nabih Berri, PM Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun - will tell Ortagus that Lebanon's priority is the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the five points where they are still deployed in south Lebanon and the cessation of Israeli attacks and violations.

Lebanon's new central bank governor vowed Friday that the institution will fight money laundering and the financing of "terrorism" and will work independently away from political intervention.

Karim Souaid, who was speaking after officially taking office in Beirut, added that he will work on restructuring the banking sector and public debt and returning money to depositors.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam condemned Friday an Israeli strike on the port city of Sidon as a "flagrant attack on Lebanese sovereignty" and a breach of the November 27 ceasefire.

Hamas commander Hassan Farhat was killed in the strike on his apartment along with his daughter and his son, also a member of the Palestinian group’s military wing.

Israel’s military said it conducted an air strike targeting a Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon on Thursday.

"A short while ago, an IAF (Israeli air force) aircraft struck a Hezbollah terrorist who operated" in the area of Alma Al Shaab in southern Lebanon, a military statement said.

Two men have been arrested in Britain on suspicion of alleged links to Hezbollah, the BBC has reported.

France has proposed a mediation aimed at replacing Israeli forces with peacekeepers from the French UNIFIL contingent on the five strategic hills Israel is still occupying in south Lebanon, sources told Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath television.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said that the municipal elections will not be postponed despite the devastation caused by more than 13-monthes of war with Israel.

"Postponing the elections is absolutely out of the question," Berri told al-Joumhouria newspaper in remarks published Thursday.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi said Thursday that “the time has come for unifying arms Lebanon,” adding that “this is what was stipulated in the Taif Agreement.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Thursday that negotiations are ongoing over the border dispute with Lebanon and the release of Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel.

After meeting his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot in Paris, Saar said that Turkey is playing a negative role in Syria and Lebanon, adding that Israel wants "the stability of Lebanon, the continuation of the ceasefire, and liberating Lebanon from Iranian occupation."