Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has met with Jamaa Islamiya chief Sheikh Mohammad Takkoush, Hezbollah said.

The meeting “tackled the latest political and security developments in Lebanon and Palestine,” a Hezbollah statement said.

Marking the 248th Anniversary of the United States’ Independence Day, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut held a reception attended by MP Fadi Alameh, representing Speaker Nabih Berri, and caretaker Interior Minister Bassam al-Mawlawi, representing caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati.   

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Lisa Johnson noted in her remarks: “The United States has supported Lebanon and the Lebanese people since Lebanon’s birth as a nation.  Our relationship is built on a common desire for a prosperous, free, and democratic world.  The strength of our partnership is reflected in the numerous bonds connecting our two countries. We are bonded in strength.”  

The Russian embassy in Beirut has recommended that its citizens avoid traveling to Lebanon “until the situations calm down in the south of the country,” media reports said.

Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Rudakov meanwhile told al-Jadeed television that the embassy “has not issued a new statement calling on citizens to leave Lebanon.”

Israeli warplanes raided Thursday the southern border town of Aitaroun, as fears mounted that months of cross-border fire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah could turn into a full-fledged conflict.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily cross-border fire since the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Wednesday that efforts should be exerted to prevent Lebanon from being turned into “an arena for armed conflicts starting from the south.”

“The relevant U.N. resolutions must be implemented in order to put an end to Israel’s expansionist ambitions, and accordingly not linking Lebanon’s stability and interests to extremely complicated conflicts and endless wars,” Mikati added, during a joint press conference in Beirut with the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib on Wednesday traveled to Brussels for talks with European Union officials.

Bou Habib will then head to the United States for talks with U.S. officials in Washington and U.N. officials in New York. The minister will also visit Canada to meet with his Canadian counterpart.

The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, met Wednesday in Ain el-Tineh with Speaker Nabih Berri after which he said that “the solution for the presidential crisis begins from this headquarters.”

“The Christian parties certainly bear responsibility, but they are not alone in power and others must shoulder their responsibilities,” Parolin added.

Israeli artillery shelled Wednesday Kfarshouba and Wadi Hamoul in south Lebanon, while warplanes raided Aita al-Shaab, al-Khiam and al-Dhayra and a drone struck a power line in al-Taybeh.

Later on Wednesday, Hezbollah said it targeted buildings used by Israeli troops in the Metula settlement near the border in response to Israeli strikes on a number of buildings in the southern towns of Khiam and Kfarshouba.

Hezbollah launched Tuesday an array of suicide drones at an Israeli military base in Nahal Gershom in response to Monday’s strikes in the Bekaa.

The group later targeted the Berkat Risha and the Bayyad Blida posts in northern Israel.

Parliament Speaker and head of Hezbollah-allied Amal movement Nabih Berri is worried about a war conflagration, he told Russian state-controlled international news television RT.

"This month is crucial, we are in a sensitive and delicate stage," Berri told RT in an interview Monday, adding that the situation is "unsettling."