President Joseph Aoun stated Thursday that the Lebanese state has "received the appeals of our people in Nabatieh, Tyre and Arab Salim.”

“I wish to tell them: We have heeded your calls and stand by your side; we certainly cannot remain distant from you. We must exert every effort to support and assist you, and to secure the essentials for your resilience to the greatest extent possible,” Aoun said during a cabinet session.

MP Ali Ammar of Hezbollah on Thursday responded to a statement released by the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, lamenting that “day by day, the United States’ blatant interference in Lebanese affairs is intensifying and Lebanon’s sovereignty is crudely violated -- whether through statements from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut or provocative remarks by its ambassador.”

“It is as if someone has appointed themselves guardian over Lebanon, imposing conditions and paths, categorizing its people and political forces, and dictating its choices and orientations,” Ammar said.

Israeli strikes targeted Thursday Nabatieh al-Fawqa, al-Mansouri and the region between Zebqine and Shihine.

Overnight into Thursday, artillery shelled Zawtar al-Sharqiyeh, Wadi al-Hujair, Nabatieh al-Fawqa and Wadi Slouqi, and Israeli forces detonated houses and infrastructure in al-Mansouri, Mays al-Jabal, Bani Hayyan, and al-Khiam.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa has told President Joseph Aoun that Israel would escalate its attacks on Lebanon if Hezbollah doesn't disarm - and would accept nothing less, Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported Thursday.

The daily claimed that Issa conveyed this message from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting last week with Aoun, which prompted Aoun to convene on Wednesday with security chiefs in Baabda to draw up a proactive plan to counter a potential escalation.

The Constitutional Council on Thursday issued a decision suspending the effect of the general amnesty law that was recently approved by parliament, after an appeal was filed against the law by the Free Patriotic Movement-led Strong Lebanon bloc.

The law will remain suspended until the council issues a final verdict.

Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily on Wednesday quoted a senior Lebanese official as telling it that Lebanon may be facing its “last chance” to achieve peace with Israel, urging the Israelis to give the Lebanese government time and political space to weaken Hezbollah and warning that continued Israeli military action could derail the process.

“Israel must help us. Israel must give us oxygen,” Yedioth Ahronoth quoted the alleged official as telling it in an exclusive interview. “The Lebanese people today dream of peace with Israel,” the official claimed.

MP Hassan Fadlallah of Hezbollah on Thursday emphasized that "the Resistance is committed to confronting the presence of the occupation using all available and feasible means and capabilities.”

“The enemy is currently attempting to impose a new equation to make the cost of liberation hefty and high, aiming to avoid a repeat of the scenarios seen in earlier stages, particularly prior to the year 2000, that’s why it expands its attacks and crimes against civilians upon every confrontation,” Fadlallah said.

The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said Thursday that the Lebanese do not want Hezbollah to be armed and that south Lebanon does not belong to the Iran-backed group.

In a post on the X platform, the embassy "the United States applauds these communities and supports the government of Lebanon in its stated goal to assert sovereignty, enforced by the LAF, and ensure that the decisions of war and peace lie exclusively with the Lebanese state."

Lebanon’s army on Wednesday accused Israel of a deadly escalation in the country’s south in recent days that threatened a framework deal between the countries and the military’s efforts to implement it.

The army said in a statement that continued Israeli attacks in recent days "threaten existing understandings and arrangements, and hinder the army’s efforts to establish stability" in the region.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that the war with the United States could end if Washington stopped threatening the Islamic republic and met Tehran's conditions, including regarding its nuclear program.

"If the enemy wants an end to this situation, it must, while completely stopping the war, refrain from renewed threats, withdraw the Israeli regime's army from Lebanon, end the blockade of Yemen, release $24 billion in Iran's frozen assets and refrain from any interference in the country's nuclear and missile capabilities," IRGC Spokesman Hossein Mohebi said, according to the Fars news agency.