Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the Israeli army is striking Hezbollah “whenever it tries to raise its head,” in reference to the daily strikes in Lebanon that have continued despite the ceasefire reached in November last year.

Netanyahu was listing his government’s “achievements” in the region since Hamas’ October 7 attacks, in a video addressed to the Israeli opposition.

President Joseph Aoun met Monday with Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and discussed with him the preparations for Friday’s important cabinet session that will tackle the army’s plan for arms monopolization.

Salam also briefed Aoun on the outcome of his latest visit to Egypt and his talks with President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and a number of top officials.

Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah, called on Sunday for dialogue over its weapons, days before the government is expected to approve an army plan to disarm the group.

Months after Hezbollah's devastating war with Israel and under heavy U.S. pressure, Lebanon's government this month tasked the army with drawing up a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.

Violent Israeli airstrikes on Sunday targeted the Ali al-Taher hills in the southern area of Nabatieh al-Fawqa, an area that has been bombed several times since the November ceasefire.

The Israeli army claimed the strikes hit a site run by Hezbollah.

Deputy Prime Minister Tarek Mitri said Saturday that “Hezbollah, the army and the government have agreed to avoid confrontation.”

Intensive consultations are taking place behind closed doors among senior political and non-political officials regarding the army’s weapons monopolization plan that will be presented to Cabinet on September 5, media reports said.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called on the international community to provide financial support to his government and to the Lebanese army as Lebanon works on implementing a plan to disarm Hezbollah.

In an interview published Friday in the Financial Times, Salam said that his government has taken the necessary steps, but now requires Arab and international backing to move forward.

Army Commander General Rodolphe Haykal held an extraordinary meeting Friday with the army’s command and top officers to discuss “the developments that Lebanon and the army are going through amid the current extraordinary period, amid the Israeli enemy’s violations and attacks.”

“The army is shouldering great responsibilities on all levels, and it will face a delicate stage in which it will assume sensitive missions,” Haykal said, according to an army statement.

UNIFIL on Friday expressed its heartfelt condolences to the Lebanese Army and the families of the personnel who lost their lives in yesterday’s Israeli drone explosion in Naqoura, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. 

U.S. envoy Tom Barrack has revealed that he had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their latest meeting in Israel to “give Lebanon a break.”

“Give Lebanon a break, give them a whiff of tolerance and understanding. You can’t be apparently so brutal on everybody,” Barrack said he told Netanyahu, in an interview with Mario Nawfal on the X platform.