The European Commission announced Friday it was clearing a 50-million-euro ($54 million) payment to the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, which was under review following Israeli claims its staff participated in Hamas's October 7 attack.

Commission spokesman Eric Mamer told reporters the funds would be released "early next week" after UNRWA agreed to a "series of conditions" including an EU-led audit, with a further 32 million euros to follow later.

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun on Friday traveled to Italy at an invitation from his Italian counterpart Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, the army said.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib on Friday said that Lebanon wants a “complete solution” for the border conflict with Israel.

Hezbollah said Friday it has downed an Israeli drone overnight in southern Lebanon and targeted Friday a military post and a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel.

The group said it has downed the drone over the al-Azziyeh valley in the Tyre district, in support of Gaza and its resistance, and targeted the al-Baghdadi post and a group of soldiers in the Ramim barracks in northern Israel.

A UNIFIL vehicle lost its way and ended up in the Beirut southern suburb of Hay al-Sellom on Thursday evening, which sparked an altercation with locals and a brief detention of the peacekeepers, media reports said.

Beirut has long been renowned for its pivotal educational role in the Middle East. It stands as the city where the most prominent Arab rulers pursued their education, and it has always been home to a great number of schools and universities. The Lebanese, known for their profound love of knowledge, consistently invest everything they can to provide their children with a quality education.

Today, Beirut, as we like to call it “the classroom of the Middle East”, is hosting the second edition of SchoolTec, “The National Trade Fair for Educational Supplies and Solutions”, drawing hundreds of attendees, including principals, coordinators, teachers, academic and non-academic staff members, IT managers, procurers, and parents, eager to gain knowledge about the most prominent educational solutions, technologies, and services.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati met Friday with the ambassadors of the five-nation group at the Grand Serail.

Egyptian Ambassador Alaa Moussa, U.S. ambassador Lisa Johnson, French Ambassador Herve Magro, Saudi Ambassador Walid al-Bukhari, and Qatari Ambassador Sheikh Saud bin Abdul Rahman Al-Thani discussed the Lebanese presidential impasse with Mikati.

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Lebanese Parliament chaired by MP Fadi Alameh has visited the Ain el-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, accompanied by the Director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, Dorothee Klaus. The Director of the Office of the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee, Abdel Nasser al-Ayyi, was also in attendance.

"This visit by MPs underscores Lebanon's support for the sustained work of UNRWA and its crucial humanitarian role in delivering essential services to Palestine refugees in Lebanon, and as such contributes to its stability. This comes amidst an unprecedented financial crisis looming over UNRWA due to the freeze of funding of 16 donors nations. Without funding to UNRWA resuming, UNRWA operations across the Middle East, including in Lebanon, will face comprised operations after March," UNRWA said in a statement.

U.S. administration and intelligence officials are concerned that Israel is planning a ground incursion into Lebanon that could be launched in the late spring or early summer if diplomatic efforts fail to push Hezbollah back from the northern border with Israel, CNN has quoted senior administrations officials and officials familiar with the intelligence as saying.

Austria's foreign minister on Thursday urged Israel and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group against escalating the conflict along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border and expressed hope for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in March.

The Middle East has witnessed enough devastation and cruelty, said Alexander Schallenberg, speaking after meeting his Lebanese counterpart in Beirut.