Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Thursday stressed that security agencies will “prevent any form of strife.”

“All security agencies will not accept any form of self-security,” Mawlawi added, emphasizing that “Lebanon will not accept self-security, which is rejected and prohibited.”

Marada Movement chief Suleiman Franjieh on Thursday held talks in Bkirki with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi.

“We’re open to ever dialogue and we’re all working for the safety of Christians, not their security as some are proposing,” said Franjieh after the meeting, apparently accusing rival Christian parties of seeking to be in charge of security in certain areas.

Four ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon met Thursday with Free Patriotic Movement leader Jebran Bassil at his residence in Bayyada, as they resumed their meetings for a second day in Beirut.

The ambassadors of Egypt, France, KSA, and Qatar agreed with Bassil on separating the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah in the south from the presidential file, Egyptian Ambassador Alaa Moussa said after the meeting.

Two Hezbollah members were killed Thursday in an overnight strike on the southern border town of Kfarkila, as tensions flared on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Israeli warplanes and artillery also heavily bombed the town of al-Khiam, including with white phosphorus bombs, while a drone targeted a house in Markaba.

Speaker Nabih Berri on Wednesday took a decision to schedule a legislative session for April 25 to decide on a draft law calling for the postponement of this year’s municipal elections, Deputy Speaker Elias Bou Saab said after a meeting for the Parliament Bureau.

“I had a viewpoint that we can begin holding the municipal elections in the areas in which we can do that, but there is another viewpoint that says that we are in a state of war and that the Israeli enemy is sparing no areas in the south and the Bekaa,” Bou Saab said.

Hezbollah targeted Wednesday three command centers in northern Israel, a day after Israeli strikes in south Lebanon killed two local Hezbollah commanders and another operative.

Hezbollah said it targeted overnight a military vehicle in the Metula post and attacked later in the morning in the Beranit barracks a group of soldiers and a command center with a Burkan missile.

Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has said that the FPM has defeated a “conspiracy” aimed at “eliminating” it, after its candidate was elected as the head of the Order of Engineers and Architects.

The ambassadors of the five-nation group for Lebanon met Wednesday Marada leader Suleiman Franjieh in Bnashii and Kataeb leader Sami Gemayel in Bekfaya, as they resumed their efforts to end the presidential impasse in Lebanon.

The quintet's ambassadors had held Tuesday a consultative meeting at the residence of the Egyptian envoy and will meet this week with several parliamentary blocs.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said that municipal elections will not happen without including the south where Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging daily cross-border fire.

"Geagea has to understand that I will not separate the south from Lebanon," Berri said in response to Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea who called Tuesday for timely municipal elections, despite the daily clashes in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah on Tuesday fired rockets at Israel's Meron air control base and the Beit Hillel military base in response to Israeli drone strikes that killed two of its military commanders in the southern towns of Ain Baal and Shehabiyeh.

The Israeli army and a source close to Hezbollah confirmed that a military commander was killed in the Ain Baal strike.