Muslims around the world are welcoming the arrival of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting, intense prayer, charity and feasts that begins for many Sunday night.

In Lebanon, Sunnis began fasting Monday after officials in Saudi Arabia saw the crescent moon on Sunday night, while some Lebanese Shiites began fasting Monday and others Tuesday.

Hezbollah on Sunday said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel after Israeli strikes the day before left five dead in southern Lebanon, including three of the group's members.

Hamas ally Hezbollah and its arch-foe Israel have been exchanging near-daily fire across the border since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.

A top U.S. Treasury official visiting Beirut this week pressed Lebanese authorities to prevent funds from being funneled to Hamas by way of Lebanon, officials said.

Jesse Baker, deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for Asia and the Middle East in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, met with Lebanese politicians and officials from the financial sector Thursday and Friday.

Israeli warplanes on Saturday bombed a house in the southern town of Majdal Zoun, totally destroying it, prompting emergency crews and paramedics to head to the area, the National News Agency said.

Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblat on Friday criticized U.S. President Joe Biden’s aid plans for the embattled Gaza Strip.

Israeli military officials have denied a Lebanese report that claimed that Israel would launch a major attack in Lebanon if no diplomatic deal was reached by March 15, Israel’s Channel 13 reported.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil is walking a fine line between supporting and opposing the ongoing war in Lebanon's south.

"The Lebanese have the right to defend their country but Palestinians do not have the right to defend Palestine from Lebanon [...] and self-defense is a legitimate right but the decision to attack requires a united Lebanese stance," Bassil said in a televised interview.

The Israeli military on Friday denied it targets reporters after an expert report gave further details of a tank crew opening fire and killing a journalist and wounding others in Lebanon last year.

The military said it "does not deliberately shoot at civilians, including journalists" after a probe by the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) found troops "likely" opened fire on the journalists with a machine gun after deadly shelling.

Ahead of International Women's Day, the United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Joanna Wronecka, accompanied by U.N. Women representative in Lebanon Gielan Elmessiri, has met in the northern city of Tripoli with youth, women-led groups and non- governmental organizations active in empowering women and girls, peacebuilding efforts and the promotion of social stability through inclusive political dialogue, social inclusion and economic empowerment.

"All across Lebanon, I have met with inspiring women who are playing leading roles in trying to make their communities more peaceful, inclusive, resourceful and involved in contributing to a more sustainable future for their country," Wronecka said Wednesday. "Creating a conducive environment for enhancing women and girls’ rights and participation is even more necessary during times of crisis so that Lebanon can benefit from the full potential of all its citizens," she added.

U.S. mediator Amos Hochstein has suspended his mission and decided to return to his country, while also recalling the aide whom he had kept in Beirut for further talks, after the Gaza truce negotiations reached a dead end, official sources said.