As the world prepares to celebrate a new year, the Lebanese are living day by day amid fears and threats of a renewed war.

The Lebanese army has been tasked by the government to disarm Hezbollah by the year end, under U.S. pressure and Israel's almost daily strikes. However, the army's resources are too limited and Israel is accusing it of not doing the job.

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon has said that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers Tuesday in the country’s south near the de facto border with Israel, reporting no injuries.

"Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF (Israeli army) soldiers in a Merkava tank near Sarda," a UNIFIL statement said Wednesday.

Tripoli's historic 12th century "Citadel Raymond De Saint Gilles" was officially inaugurated following months of restoration efforts carried out by the Lebanese army and youth from marginalized communities, through UK funding to the NGO MARCH.

Wednesday's inauguration ceremony was attended by Deputy Head of Mission Victoria Dunne with the Director General of Antiquities at the Ministry of Culture (representing Minister Ghassan Salameh) Sarkis Al Khoury, Tripoli's Mayor Dr. Abdel Hamid Kareemeh, senior Lebanese Army officers, Head of MARCH Lea Baroudi and local youth from the city.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has sent a letter to Hezbollah chief Sheikh Naim Qassem telling him that “Hezbollah’s decisions are left to its leadership in Lebanon,” sources told An-Nahar newspaper in remarks published Wednesday.

“This is what he (Khamenei) used to practice with the late Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,” the sources added.

An Aegean Airlines flight from Cyprus’ Larnaca to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport was unexpectedly diverted through Lebanese airspace on Wednesday morning due to severe winter weather, Israel’s Channel 12 reported.

“The passengers were not informed in real time that the aircraft had crossed into the territory of a country officially at war with Israel,” the channel noted.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa said Wednesday that Israel differentiates between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah.

"The negotiations with the Lebanese government and the war on Hezbollah are two separate things to Israel," Issa told reporters in a press conference after a meeting with Speaker Nabih Berri and the American Task Force for Lebanon.

A Sofia court on Wednesday refused to extradite a shipowner wanted by Lebanon over a devastating blast at Beirut's port in 2020.

Lebanon wants Bulgaria to extradite Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot, over the disaster.

Turkey is mediating between Syria and Hezbollah on the one hand and between Syria and Iran on the other, which reflects Ankara's attempt to control the dynamics of a delicate regional phase characterized by rapidly shifting balances, a media report said.

A well-informed source told the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper that Turkey has succeeded in recent weeks in bringing together a high-ranking official from the new Syrian regime and a prominent Hezbollah official in meetings held repeatedly behind the scenes. Ankara has also hosted high-ranking officials from Syria and Iran.

Foreign Minister Youssef Rajji told Wednesday his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that he can only meet him in a neutral country but not in Iran, after the latter invited him to visit Tehran.

Rajji said, in a letter to Araghchi, that his refusal to visit Iran is because of the circumstances which are not currently favorable and not because he doesn't want to hold talks with Iran.

The main meeting between President Joseph Aoun and Sultan Haitham bin Tariq of Oman on Tuesday included in-depth discussions on various issues, with Aoun providing a detailed explanation of the Lebanese situation, particularly in the South, in addition to the work of the Mechanism committee and the ongoing Israeli attacks, media reports said.

“Given the Sultanate's role and its strong relations with various countries in the region, especially the United States and Iran, the discussion addressed the possibility of Muscat contributing to facilitating Lebanese-Israeli negotiations by playing a mediating role to bridge the gaps and push towards practical results,” the Nidaa la-Watan newspaper reported on Wednesday.