Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, is expected to arrive in Beirut on Thursday, and will begin a series of meetings with several officials on Friday, media reports said.

He is scheduled to meet with President Joseph Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

The Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday urged pressure on Israel including potential economic consequences if it does not hold responsible troops behind a deadly 2023 strike on reporters in Lebanon.

A Reuters journalist was killed and two AFP reporters were seriously wounded when they came under fire in southern Lebanon close to the border with Israel on October 13, 2023.

Hezbollah MP Ibrahim al-Moussawi said that self-defense is "a natural right" after the army and security forces seized explosives suspected of belonging to Hezbollah, while rejecting claims that the group is planning assassinations.

"If it is true (that the explosives belong to Hezbollah), the resistance feels no shame," he said, adding that "self-defense is a natural right for the resistance as long as the attacks continue, Israeli forces remain on Lebanese soil, and the government and military are unable to confront them".

An Israeli high school student was killed and two dozen other people injured Monday by a suspected leftover Hezbollah bomb as they hiked near the Lebanese border, Israeli officials said.

The Lebanese Army seized over the past few hours a shipment containing 200 kilograms of C-4 explosives being transported on a donkey crossing the mountains between Syria and Lebanon, a judicial source told MTV.

The Lebanese Army later issued an official statement saying its units “continue to carry out missions to monitor and secure the Lebanese-Syrian border in order to prevent smuggling and illegal infiltration attempts.”

The two detainees held in the so-called Hezbollah explosives case belong to the Hezbollah-affiliated Resistance Brigades, the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Monday.

It identified them as Haitham Amhaz, who hails from the town of Nabha, and Ali al-Kurdi, who hails from the town of Saadnayel, noting that the latter is the brother of the Brigades’ top official in Saadnayel.

The European Union on Monday established a mission to help train Lebanon's cash-strapped armed forces as it struggles to assert control in the country.

The move comes as the mandate for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon is set to expire -- but the EU insists its mission is not a replacement.

The case of the explosives seized in the possession of two Hezbollah members puts Lebanese authorities under increased international scrutiny, making the way they handle it a subject of close observation, a diplomatic source said.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called Monday for national unity, saying he is in constant communication with President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.

Berri told An-Nahar newspaper, in remarks published Monday, that his relationship with Aoun and Salam is "good" and that "communication with both is ongoing."

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said the hundreds of kilograms of explosives that were busted at the Dahr al-Baydar checkpoint "were probably intended to be used inside Lebanon," called on the state to continue its investigation "even if it should include (Hezbollah chief Sheikh) Naim Qassem."

In an interview with French-language daily L'Orient-Le Jour, Geagea said the incident is "the most dangerous in years," calling on the state to take a firm stand and complete its efforts to establish a monopoly on weapons.