Celebrations erupted in several areas in Lebanon following the announcement of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Many people flooded the streets in Palestinian refugee camps, as well as cities like Sidon in the south, Tripoli in the north and Beirut’s southern suburbs. People marched or rode motorcycles, honking in celebration while waving Hamas flags.

Senior Saudi and Kuwaiti officials have expressed readiness to offer aid to Lebanon to assist it in the reconstruction process after the latest Israeli war, informed sources said.

Speaking on the sidelines of international financial meetings, the Gulf officials said such assistance should exclusively pass through the Lebanese state through a legal mechanism, the sources told al-Akhbar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

Hezbollah has become “a shadow of its former self” after its leadership was “eliminated” and “its terrorist infrastructure of tunnels and weapons manufacturing” was “ravaged” by Israel’s strikes, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

“Hezbollah’s battered forces have retreated north of the Litani River as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement,” Blinken said in a speech to the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will meet Friday with Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam, a day after non-binding consultations boycotted by Amal and ally Hezbollah.

Berri told LBCI that he doubts that Amal and Hezbollah's MPs would meet Salam.

Lebanese Forces MP George Adwan called Wednesday for dropping "national consensus governments", after his bloc held with Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam non-binding consultations for forming a new government.

"We don’t want a return to the army-people-resistance equation," Adwan said. "And we want the state to extend its authority over all Lebanese soil," he added.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil announced Wednesday that the FPM “will facilitate the government formation process” and that it will not insist on retaining the energy portfolio.

“We have not asked the PM-designate for anything in the governmental issue, we’re ready to help and in our opinion the government must represent the parliamentary forces through experts,” Bassil added, following his bloc’s talks with PM-designate Nawaf Salam during the non-binding parliamentary consultations for forming a new government.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi held a meeting Wednesday at the Baabda Palace with President Joseph Aoun.

Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam on Wednesday began two-day non-binding consultations with MPs for forming a new government, amid a boycott by the parliamentary blocs of Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, known in Lebanon as the Shiite Duo.

French leader Emmanuel Macron is due to visit Lebanon on Friday, both countries said, in the second such trip by a head of state since Lebanon elected a president last week.

Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam’s non-binding parliamentary consultations for forming a new government will be held in parliament on Wednesday and Thursday , Parliament’s Secretariat-General said.

Salam will meet with the parliamentary blocs on Wednesday from 10:00 am until around 6:00 pm and will meet with the independent MPs on Thursday from 10:00 am until around 6:45 pm, the Secretariat-General said in a statement.