The five-nation group for Lebanon, which comprises the U.S., France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt, has met Lebanese leaders this week in an initiative aimed at ending a presidential crisis and months of political wrangling.

The group's initiative consists of three phases, Egyptian Ambassador Alaa Moussa said. Moussa told LBCI Wednesday that the first and most important step is to communicate with the blocs and to have their commitment. Consultations would follow, and the third step would be the election of a president in Parliament.

United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka and United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix have briefed the Security Council on the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006). The Security Council was meeting in closed consultations to discuss the latest report of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the implementation of the resolution, the U.N. said in a statement.

Deeply concerned by the escalation in the exchanges of fire across, and increasingly beyond, the Blue Line, the Special Coordinator said these repeated violations of resolution 1701 increase the risks of miscalculation and further deterioration of an already critical situation.

Washington has proposed sponsoring the “comprehensive military structure in south Lebanon for years to come” once a solution is reached for the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath channel has quoted sources as saying.

Change MPs Firas Hamdan, Najat Saliba, Yassine Yassine, Paula Yacoubian and Melhem Khalaf have condemned an “incitement and treason accusations campaign” against fellow MP Ibrahim Mneimneh, after he criticized the appearance of Jamaa Islamiya gunmen in Beirut during the funeral of a group fighter who was killed by Israeli fire in south Lebanon.

Israeli raids hit warehouses storing weapons for the Lebanese Hezbollah group in Syria Tuesday, a war monitor said, as a Syrian military source said air defenses had intercepted several missiles.

Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes in Syria since civil war broke out in 2011, targeting Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi has told the ambassadors of the member states of the five-nation group for Lebanon, as he met them Monday in Bkerki, that the call for dialogue to elect a president surprises him.

"The Constitution is the highest law, so why are we trespassing it?" Bkerki's spokesperson Walid Ghayad said.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil on Tuesday warned that if the caretaker government “appoints 234 customs agents not including a single Christian,” it would be “insisting on excluding Christians from the state.”

As UNIFIL marked the 46th anniversary of its establishment today, Tuesday, its leadership renewed calls for all actors to "put down their weapons, recommit to Security Council Resolution 1701, and work toward a political and diplomatic solution," a statement said.

“Resolution 1701 has been challenged by current events, but it remains as relevant and necessary as ever,” said Head of Mission and Force Commander Aroldo Lázaro. "We call on all parties to commit to implementing the resolution in full. Our more than 10,000 peacekeepers continue their critical monitoring, de-escalation, and liaison work, and we stand ready to support a peaceful resolution to the current situation," he added.

Israeli warplanes struck Tuesday Marwahin and a house in the southern border town of al-Odaisseh, as the war enters its sixth month.

Israeli artillery later shelled the outskirts of Tayr Harfa and al-Naqoura.

For four years, Sivan Shoshani Partush recruited families for Kibbutz Malkiya, a community of around 400 that she calls her "little slice of heaven." It wasn't a hard sell: spacious homes, beautiful nature, paths winding through manicured lawns, and a slower pace of life than in Israel's frantic cities.

The border with Lebanon is just 200 meters away. Partush would pass it on her daily runs, a feature of the landscape just like the view of the snow-topped Hermon Mountain in the winter.