Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has criticized the government’s approval of the objectives of U.S. envoy Tom Barrack’s paper, saying Cabinet should have approved a “Lebanese” paper instead.

Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters took to the streets of Beirut's southern suburbs to protest a government decision to disarm the group.

Lebanese media shared footage of similar rallies late Thursday, in other areas of the country where Hezbollah holds sway, while troops deployed to maintain order.

An Israeli drone strike targeted Friday a car on the Ansarieh highway in the southern region of al-Zahrani, killing a journalist.

The journalist, Mohammad Shehadeh, is a photographer and correspondent of a local news portal. His colleagues said he was killed while performing his professional duties.

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack said on Thursday Lebanon's government had taken a "historic" decision this week by moving to disarm Iran-backed Hezbollah, which Washington has pushed for.

In a post on X, Barrack congratulated Lebanese leaders "for making the historic, bold, and correct decision this week to begin fully implementing" a November ceasefire which ended more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, and stipulated that weapons in Lebanon be restricted to government agencies only.

Lebanon said an Israeli strike on the country's east on Thursday killed at least six people, in the latest attack despite a November ceasefire in a war with militant group Hezbollah.

"The Israeli strike on Masnaa Road resulted in a preliminary toll of six deaths and ten injuries," the Lebanese health ministry said in a statement.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said on Thursday that peacekeepers "discovered a vast network of fortified tunnels in the vicinity of Tayr Harfa, Zibqin, and Naqura" in south Lebanon, including "several bunkers, artillery pieces, multiple rocket launchers, hundreds of shells and rockets, anti-tank mines, and other explosive devices."

Prime Minister Salam said in June that the Lebanese Army had dismantled more than 500 Hezbollah military positions and weapons depots in the south.

As Thursday's key cabinet meeting on the U.S. paper for Hezbollah's disarmament got underway, Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc called on the government to "correct the situation it has put itself and Lebanon in by slipping into accepting American demands that inevitably serve the interests of the Zionist enemy."

Lebanon's cabinet convened again on Thursday to discuss the thorny task of disarming Hezbollah, a day after the Iran-backed group rejected the government's decision to take away its weapons.

One person was killed Thursday when an Israeli drone bombed a car in the town of Kfardan west of Baalbek, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said.

Brig. Gen. Iraj Masjedi, the assistant commander of Iran’s Quds Force for coordination affairs, said Thursday that “the project of removing Hezbollah’s arms in Lebanon is a failed scheme by America and the Zionist regime (Israel),” adding that “this dream will be buried with them.”

A U.S. congress member said Thursday that Washington will push Israel to withdraw from all of southern Lebanon if the Lebanese Army asserts full control over the country.

"We will push hard to make sure that there is — and this is something that I will work with the Israelis on — a complete withdrawal in return for the Lebanese Armed Forces showing its ability to secure all Lebanon," California Republican U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa said.