Sources in the Israeli army have told the Haaretz newspaper that the Israeli military “will have to stay in Lebanon until the Lebanese army can fulfill its commitments under the terms of the cease-fire deal, which include attaining full control of southern Lebanon.”

Footage of a priest with a machinegun slung over his shoulder inside a church in Lebanon’s Mazraat Yachouh has gone viral on social media and stirred controversy in the country.

Syrian interim foreign minister Asaad al-Shibani has received a phone call from Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, Syria's official news agency SANA said.

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun has traveled to Saudi Arabia at an invitation from his Saudi counterpart Air Chief Marshal Fayyadh al-Ruwaili, the Lebanese Army said on Thursday.

A "strategic weapons shipment" for Hezbollah was the target of the Israeli airstrike that hit a building in Lebanon's Bekaa at dawn Wednesday, Al-Arabiya television reported Thursday.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Thursday warned that “any actions that risk the fragile cessation of hostilities” in south Lebanon “must cease.”

Israeli warplanes targeted a two-story house at dawn Wednesday in the plain of the Baalbek district town of Taraya, causing no casualties, the National News Agency and media reports said.

United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, has vowed to help lead Lebanon into a new phase.

"I will certainly be doing everything I can do to support Lebanon enter a new phase," Fletcher said in an televised interview with LBCI.

A video that circulated online of Lebanese pop star Ragheb Alameh on a phone call with Emirati singer Abdullah Belkheir stirred outrage among Lebanese as Alameh hailed the killing of former Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Nasrallah enjoys great popularity among his supporters and even some who do not support Hezbollah. He was killed in September in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi called Tuesday for Lebanon's return to "positive neutrality."

In a Christmas speech, al-Rahi called for one army "instead of two armies" and for distancing Lebanon from wars, conflicts, and alliances. "Lebanon must protect its sovereignty and defend itself against any occupier, without interfering in the affairs of other states."