Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Thursday kicked off a solidarity visit to clashes-hit south Lebanon by praying at the Our Lady of the Seas Cathedral in the city of Tyre.

Israeli forces shelled and carried out air strikes on southern Lebanon Thursday, with Hezbollah also claiming several attacks on Israeli troops and positions.

Hezbollah said it has targeted the Ramim barracks, al-Marj military post, Hadb al-Bustan, al-Jerdah, Bayyad Blida, Ma'ayan Baruch and a group of soldiers in the Mattat barracks. All targets on Israeli military positions were direct hits, Hezbollah said in a statement. Israeli media reported one death in Mattat.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday evening vowed to drive Hezbollah away from the border with Israel beyond the Litani River.

After concluding a highly tense meeting with the heads of frontline communities along the Lebanon border, Gallant assured them that the approximately 80,000 residents living within 9 kilometers of the border will not return to their homes until security in the area is restored.

Israeli environmental experts have called on the defense establishment to carefully weigh the long-term environmental implications of reported plans to flood the immense network of tunnels in the Gaza Strip with seawater to flush the Hamas militants out.

Quoting U.S. officials, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the Israeli army last month set up five large water pumps near the al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, which are capable of flooding the tunnels within weeks by pumping thousands of cubic meters of water per hour into them.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi will make a solidarity visit to the South on Thursday at the head of a delegation from the Council of Catholic Patriarchs and Bishops, the Catholic Media Center said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea rejected Wednesday a Hamas statement that announced the establishment in Lebanon of a division called al-Aqsa Flood Vanguards and called on Palestinian youths to join it.

"This statement is unacceptable and it violates Lebanon's sovereignty," Geagea said.

Hezbollah has agreed to the extension of the term of Army chief General Joseph Aoun, MP Sajih Atiyeh said on Wednesday.

Dialogue has resumed between Bkerki and Hezbollah, Head of the Lebanese Catholic Media Center Father Abdo Abou Kassem said.

The committee led by Bkerki spokesman Walid Ghayyad and Hezbollah official Mohammed Saeed al-Khansa is positively discussing points of national and political disagreements.

Eleven Lebanese banks on Wednesday submitted a memo to the Finance Ministry demanding that the Lebanese state pay its debts and obligations to the Central Bank (BDL) to allow it to pay its obligations to the Lebanese banks, to allow them in turn to return the trapped funds to depositors, the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL) said.

Israel shelled and carried out air strikes on southern border towns Wednesday, including Yaroun, Maroun el-Ras, Halta, Kfarhamam, al-Naqoura, Aita al-Shaab, Blida, Mhaibib and Aitaroun.

Hezbollah for its part attacked the Israeli al-Radar post in the occupied Shebaa Farms.