President Michel Aoun on Thursday announced that Lebanon's Christians are “seeking to preserve balance” in the country.

“We in Lebanon are living together as Christians and Muslims, and as Christians we are always seeking to preserve balance, especially that we are living difficult circumstances resulting from the war in the region,” Aoun told Serbia's Greek Orthodox Patriarch Irinej during a meeting in Baabda.

Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab stressed Thursday that there should be “accountability” and that “the truth should be unveiled” regarding the 2017 release from jail of Islamic State militant Abdul Rahman Mabsout, who carried out Monday's deadly attack in Tripoli.

Speaking to reporters after offering condolences to the family of slain army officer Hassan Farhat in the southern town of Baraashit, Bou Saab said he promised Farhat's father that he “will not remain silent” or “conceal anything.”

Around 700 displaced Syrians have evacuated their encampment near the Bekaa town of Deir al-Ahmar after some of them clashed with Civil Defense firefighters, media reports said.

Several firefighters were injured and the windows of their vehicle were smashed during the incident.

Israeli forces on Thursday installed a device on a transmission pole near the al-Abbad military post facing the southern border town of Houla, Marjeyoun district, Lebanon's National News Agency reported.

MP Mohammed al-Hajjar of al-Mustaqbal bloc noted Thursday that the settlement between Mustaqbal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement has led to “a lot of achievements,” amid a major deterioration in ties between the two movements.

Hajjar reminded of the electoral law, the parliamentary elections, the formation of the government and the approval of the state budget, in an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio (100.3-100.5).

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Wednesday warned that Lebanon’s leaders are “undermining the foundations of the strong state.”

“We in Lebanon have political conflicts that turn into sectarian ones and distort the culture of the National Pact, coexistence and the formula of balanced partnership in power and administration,” al-Rahi lamented.

Lebanese citizen Hassan Baydoun, 33, has been killed in a shooting rampage in the Australian city of Darwin, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.

Baydoun, who worked as a taxi driver after graduating recently from university, was the shooter’s first victim, NNA said. Three other people were killed in the spree.

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Wednesday urged an end to what he called “hatred theories” targeted against the Sunni community in Lebanon, in the wake of a deadly attack in Tripoli by an ex-fighter of the jihadist Islamic State group.

“Enough with spreading the theories of spite and hatred against the Sunnis. Terrorism has neither a religion nor an identity and it should be combated through lifting oppression off the (Islamic) detainees through putting them on trial and doing them justice,” Jumblat tweeted.

The deadly armed attack in Tripoli has sparked a new war of words between Defense Minister Elias Bou Saab of the Free Patriotic Movement and al-Mustaqbal Movement Secretary-General Ahmed Hariri.

The row started after Bou Saab said Prime Minister Saad Hariri had not called him after the attack.

Interior Minister Raya al-Hassan on Tuesday stressed that security forces maintain full readiness to tackle any security incident, in the wake of the deadly overnight attack in the northern city of Tripoli.