For the second day in a row, truck owners started rallying on several roads around Lebanon early on Thursday to protest Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq's decision to shut down sand mining and stone crushing sites, as citizens fear that the bizarre Wednesday scenario of road-blocking could be repeated.

According to the Traffic Management Center, truckers gathered on the Safra highway, Dora-Karantina highway, Zahrani highway and the Khalde-Beirut highway near the Costa Brava.

A massive explosion that struck near Damascus International Airport early on Thursday setting off large fires, was reportedly the result of an Israeli strike that targeted a Hizbullah military base, media reports said.

The blast was outside the airport itself. It was not immediately clear whether it was the result of an air strike or a ground attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Hizbullah is exerting efforts to convince Speaker Nabih Berri and Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat of the so-called qualification electoral system that has been proposed by Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil, a media report said on Wednesday.

President Michel Aoun said on Tuesday the Lebanese must adhere to their right to choose their representatives at the parliament, otherwise Lebanon would become a “totalitarian regime,” the National News Agency reported.

“We will be in a totalitarian regime shall the Lebanese relinquish their right in electing lawmakers at the parliament,” said Aoun, addressing a delegation from the Administrative Decentralization Committee led by Lawyer Antonio al-Hashem.

The National Social Security Fund employees held a sit-in on Tuesday in Riad al-Solh Square in Beirut, protesting two articles in the recently approved state budget which they say destabilizes the monetary resources of the institution.

The workers protest was held under the title of “Protecting the NSSF” and coincided with a meeting of the Parliamentary Budget and Finance Committee.

An extended four-party meeting held at the Center House Sunday evening failed to record a breakthrough agreement on a new electoral law for Lebanon's parliamentary polls, as Hizbullah party “mourned” a law format suggested by the Progressive Socialist Party, media reports said on Tuesday.

“The meeting was held in the presence of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil, Foreign Minister Jebran Bassil, Hizbullah secretary-general's political aide Hussein Khalil and Hariri's chief of staff Nader Hariri,” al-Joumhouria daily reported.

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat defended on Tuesday a draft for an electoral law suggested by his party over the weekend, lashing out at a format of the so-called qualification system which he said harms national unity.

“If the PSP's format is considered a waste of time, then the sectarian qualification format harms national unity and al-Mustaqbal Movement,” said Jumblat on his Twitter page.

Hizbullah fighters have reportedly launched an attack against Islamic State positions entrenched in the outskirts of the border town of Ras Baalbek, killing and wounding several, Hizbullah's al-Manar said in a tweet on Friday.

Contractual employees at the Social Affairs Ministry blocked the entrance to the ministry on Monday protesting Minister Pierre Bou Assi's decision to end a program they were hired to work on.

Social Affairs Minister Bou Assi said in a press conference on Monday: “We can't carry on with the population monitoring program because it was destined to end in 2016.”

Armed clashes have erupted on Monday at dawn at al-Beddawi Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon between drug dealers and the Palestinian security forces, the National News Agency reported.

The clashes started between a group of drug dealers and it soon escalated into heavy gunfire and grenade explosions, NNA said.