Parliament resumed Thursday a session on the 2024 state budget after a heated session Wednesday ended with fights and bickering.

Change MP Melhem Khalaf had left the session Wednesday after an argument with Speaker Nabih Berri, Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil described the Change MPs as Mafias, Change MP Paula Yacoubian reminded Khalil that he was charged in connection with the 2020 Beirut port blast, Free Patriotic Movement MP Ibrahim Kanaan said the government is "dishonourable" and Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan said that “there is no benefit from any state budgets” if “the war and peace decisions” are not “in the state’s hands.”

A war of words flared Wednesday between the Kataeb Party and the Syrian Social Nationalist Party after Kataeb chief Sami Gemayel derogated Habib Shartouni, a fugitive SSNP member convicted of the 1982 assassination of president-elect Bashir Gemayel.

Former Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat is growing impatient as Lebanon remains without a president after more than a year of vacuum and political bickering.

"We've been waiting for the Christians to reach an agreement for two years with no progress," Jumblat told al-Akhbar, in remarks published Wednesday.

A Hezbollah delegation comprising the official in charge of relations with Christian authorities, Mohammad Saeed al-Khansa, and Mustafa al-Hajj Ali has met at MP Farid Haykal al-Khazen’s residence with Walid Ghayyad, the adviser of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, al-Jadeed TV said.

In a meeting between Israel’s war cabinet and the heads of local authorities in northern Israel, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has warned that announcing a date for the return of settlers to the north would play into the hands of Hezbollah, pointing out that it is more advisable to leave that unclear, Israeli media reported.

According to Israel’s Channel 11, Gallant cautioned during the meeting against ending the war in Gaza before "completely dismantling Hamas," warning that failing to do so would strengthen Hezbollah against Israel.

A Libyan delegation visited Beirut this week seeking to reopen talks with Lebanese officials on the fate of a prominent Lebanese cleric who has been missing in Libya for decades, and the release of late dictator Moammar Gadhafi's son who has been held in Lebanon for years, officials said.

The talks were aimed at reactivating a long-dormant agreement between Lebanon and Libya, struck in 2014, for cooperation in the probe of the 1978 disappearance of Shiite cleric Moussa al-Sadr, judicial and security officials said.

Parliament convened Wednesday to discuss the 2024 state budget in a heated session during which MPs loudly exchanged accusations.

Change MP Melhem Khalaf left the session after an argument with Speaker Nabih Berri who did not allow Khalaf to speak as the latter criticized holding a session when "the parliament's priority should be to elect a president."

By Sara Harmouch, American University and Nakissa Jahanbani, United States Military Academy West Point

From attacks by rebels in the Red Sea to raids in northern Israel and the Oct. 7, 2023, assault by Hamas, Western analysts have pointed a finger of blame toward Iran.

After more than three months of near-daily clashes, Israel in recent weeks appears to have moved to a strategy of targeted killings as daily shelling and strikes on Lebanon's south and Hezbollah's daily attacks on Israeli posts continued.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army bombed several southern border towns, including with white phosphorus bombs.

Egyptian Ambassador to Lebanon Alaa Moussa held talks Tuesday in Ain el-Tineh with Speaker Nabih Berri, after a meeting between Berri and the ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon was postponed.