General Security announced Friday that it has busted an Israel-linked spy cell that was plotting “bombings and assassinations” in Lebanon.

A United Nations rapporteur on Friday said an Israeli attack on south Lebanon on October 13, 2023, that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded others including two from AFP was a war crime.

Morris Tidball-Binz, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, told a press conference in Beirut that it was "a premeditated, targeted and double-tapped attack from the Israeli forces, a clear violation, in my opinion, of IHL (international humanitarian law), a war crime."

Hezbollah MP Ali Fayyad has lamented that the performance of the Lebanese state over the past year “has not led to any result” in the face of Israel, which is still carrying out deadly strikes and occupying Lebanese territory, calling for a “reevaluation.”

“The Lebanese state is not mobilizing its diplomatic tools and political capabilities and it is not managing its negotiation stance in a way that seriously confronts the hostile Israeli actions,” Fayyad decried.

During its session held yesterday at the Grand Serail, the Lebanese cabinet tasked the Ministry of Justice with studying the legal options available to prosecute Israel for attacks committed against journalists while performing their professional duties, particularly the killing of Lebanese journalist Issam Abdallah and his companions.

This decision was based on a cabinet decision dated April 26, 2024 regarding the report of the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (NTO) on the circumstances surrounding the martyrdom of Abdallah, and another cabinet decision dated May 28, 2024, which requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants to include the report in the complaint submitted by Lebanon to the United Nations in this regard.

President Joseph Aoun and First Lady Nehmat Aoun on Friday visited Amani Bazzi Sharara, the mother who lost three of her children and her husband in an Israeli drone strike in Bint Jbeil on September 21.

The mother has been receiving treatment at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in Hamra.

Ain el-Tineh sources hit back overnight at remarks by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam about the government’s performance in war-hit south Lebanon, saying that the situation there is obvious and that the public opinion can easily judge it.

Salam had voiced surprise over statements by Berri, who said that “the government does not care about our people in the South.”

Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab has said that Lebanon has not received any “foreign warnings” regarding a possible new Israeli war on it, adding that Lebanon is required to monopolize arms, which is a “key file” in the country.

“The army has made major achievements as to arms monopolization, and this matter cannot be completed with the press of a button and requires patience,” Bou Saab told LBCI television.

The Lebanese Army has made “key achievements” in disarming Hezbollah in the area north of the Litani River while keeping its moves confidential, seeing as some sites were labeled as “military secrets,” a ministerial source said.

“This indicates that the spread of arms on Lebanese territory has become under monitoring and pursuit, regardless of the side that owns it,” the source told Kuwait’s al-Anbaa newspaper.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri accused Thursday the Lebanese government of ignoring the residents of the southern border villages, claiming that the Raouche light show has taken much more attention from the government than rebuilding the war-hit villages in order for the residents to return home.

"Unfortunately, (the government is acting) as if the South is not part of Lebanon," Berri decried, adding that the 2026 budget will not pass if it does not include a clear clause related to the reconstruction.

The British Ambassador to Lebanon, Hamish Cowell, has hosted a reception in honor of the Minister of Social Affairs (MoSA) Haneen Sayed and a visiting research team from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, reaffirming the United Kingdom’s "strong and long-standing partnership with Lebanon on social protection and gender equality," the British embassy said.

The event brought together a wide range of stakeholders, including Members of Parliament from the UK and Lebanon, local and regional partners, civil society representatives, journalists, and advocates, to celebrate "ongoing collaboration and shared priorities in advancing an inclusive social protection system in Lebanon."