Lebanon's health minister said on Friday that authorities are inspecting suspected cases of cholera, less than a day after the cash-strapped country confirmed its first case of the illness since 1993.

The news came almost a month after an outbreak of the illness in neighboring war-torn Syria.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday suggested holding “national dialogue” over the presidential election, as he criticized Speaker Nabih Berri for choosing October 13 as a date for the upcoming presidential vote session.

Reciting the FPM’s “presidential priorities” paper, Bassil said the new president must “preserve national sovereignty, protect the border and the full rights, devise a defense strategy in which the state is the main authority, preserve and develop Lebanon’s ties with the world, and achieve a swift and safe repatriation of the displaced Syrians.”

Lebanon's health ministry on Thursday announced the crisis-hit country's first case of cholera in decades.

The announcement comes as neighboring war-torn Syria is struggling to contain a cholera outbreak that has spread across the country over the past month.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has told Lebanon that Israel has only rejected some of the Lebanese remarks to the sea border demarcation proposal and not the entire agreement, a Lebanese Presidency source told Al-Hadath TV on Thursday.

A Lebanese official meanwhile told the TV network that “the Israeli rejection is electoral talk and will not affect the agreement.”

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab told Reuters on Thursday that he would only respond to official statements and not to media reports on Israel's stance, after a top Israeli official said that Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid is inclined to reject the latest amendments requested by Lebanon.

Bou Saab added that the deal "is 90% done but the remaining 10% could make it or break it," adding that he was in constant contact with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday ordered the Israeli army to be on alert in the north amid an apparent setback in the efforts to reach a maritime border deal with Lebanon.

Gantz will hold a situational assessment with the army’s chief of staff and other security officials, after Israel said it will not accept Lebanese amendments to a U.S.-brokered deal, Israeli media reports said.

President Michel Aoun said Thursday that Lebanon’s remarks over U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein’s latest proposal “guarantee Lebanon’s right to oil and gas exploration in the fields specified in the Exclusive Economic Zone.”

“These remarks also prevent any interpretations that do not conform to the framework specified by Lebanon for the demarcation process during the negotiations that lasted for months,” Aoun added, during a meeting with caretaker Defense Minister Maurice Slim.

Two more depositors sought to forcefully withdraw their savings on Thursday in Lebanon.

Just south of Beirut in Khalde, a man tried but was unable to break into a Banque Libano-Française branch, according to depositors' groups, and has since left the scene.

A Lebanese official involved in the negotiations to demarcate the sea border between Lebanon and Israel told AFP on Thursday that "Lebanon has not yet been notified of Israel's response,” shortly after a senior Israeli official said that Israel will reject Lebanon's latest amendments to a U.S.-drafted proposal.

The official, who requested anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the talks, said Beirut's negotiators had been working with U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein "all night... to clarify some points."

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati held talks Thursday in Bkirki with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Mikati said he briefed the patriarch on “the important issue that is about to be finalized, which is related to the demarcation of the maritime border.”