Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah are exchanging fire on a near-daily basis, and the Israeli army said last week that plans for an offensive in Lebanon were "approved and validated."

Both sides have stepped up attacks this week, with Hezbollah increasing rocket fire and Israel saying it had carried out "offensive action" across southern Lebanon.

The chief of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, Hassan Nasrallah, warned Israel on Wednesday against waging war on Lebanon, a day after a strike killed Hamas's deputy leader in the southern Beirut stronghold of Hezbollah.

A high-level security official in Lebanon said that Saleh al-Aruri was killed along with his bodyguards in a strike by Israel, which has vowed to destroy Hamas after the movement's shock October 7 attacks.

Humanitarian leaders fear the besieged territory will soon be overwhelmed by disease and starvation, and are piling diplomatic pressure on Israel to boost efforts to protect civilians.

Nestled in the mountains of northern Lebanon, a museum dedicated to Kahlil Gibran in his hometown of Bsharre has been celebrating the centennial of "The Prophet", the renowned author's most famous work.

Lebanon's Hezbollah said it attacked 19 Israeli positions along the border simultaneously Thursday, prompting a "broad" retaliatory assault, on the eve of a speech by the Iran-backed group's leader on the Israel-Hamas war.

Video journalist Issam Abdallah died and six other journalists were wounded -- including two from AFP, one of them seriously -- in strikes the village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon on October 13.

Qatar Airways reportedly stopped a woman from boarding a flight because she was “too fat.”

A man unleashed his pit bull dog on football fans who were celebrating Brazil's win over Switzerland.

A woman reportedly used a toy gun to make an uncanny forced withdrawal from a bank in Lebanon since she was only allowed an allowance of $200.

At least 6 people were reportedly killed after shot were fired during a protest match in Beirut tied to a port explosion in August.

 "No one can take that away from me. I was born there, I grew up there. It is my culture, it is my heritage, it is my lineage.” She continued on the podcast, adding, “I am passing it on to my children, there is not a soul in the world that can stop me from doing that.”

French President Emmanuel Macron is pushing for the formation of a new government for Lebanon.

Lebanon parliament has granted the army encompassing power following the deadly blast in Beirut last week.

“The emergency in Beirut has caused many COVID-19 precautionary measures to be relaxed, raising the prospects of even higher transmission rates and a large caseload in the coming weeks,” said the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report released early this week.

A Syrian air strike killed 30 people in a rebel-held town on Wednesday, a local doctor said, and a mass kidnapping linked to Syria in neighboring Lebanon raised the prospect of sectarian violence spreading.