Alexandre Paulikevitch put on his white dress and wig and danced his way to center stage, knowing that the extremist groups who had threatened him before his controversial recital might be waiting for him outside the theater.

The Lebanese dancer's sold-out performance to a cheering crowd at a popular Beirut venue had angered fundamentalist movements ranging from the right-wing Christian Soldiers of God to Sunni Islamists.

Sources close to the Iraqi government told AFP on Friday that no deal was made to secure the release of Israeli-Russian academic Elizabeth Tsurkov this week, saying her abductors had instead bowed to unspecified "pressure".

Kidnapped in Baghdad in March of 2023, Tsurkov was set free late Tuesday, hours after Israel carried out an unprecedented strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders. She was handed over to the U.S. embassy in Iraq, then flown the following day to Israel.

The Lebanese Army was on Saturday handed over five truckloads of weapons from the Ain al-Hilweh camp and another three from the al-Beddawi camp as part of an ongoing disarmament process.

So far only the Fatah Movement has handed over weapons from several camps in Beirut and its suburbs and the southern region of Tyre.

Lebanese authorities said that one person was killed Friday in an Israeli strike on the country's south near the border, the latest deadly raid this week despite a ceasefire with Hezbollah.

"An Israeli enemy strike on the town of Aitaroun killed one person," the Health Ministry said in a statement.

A U.S.-French-Saudi plan presented by French envoy Jean-Yves Le Drian to Lebanese officials calls for supporting the army and extending the grace period given to Lebanon to 16 months that end with the termination of UNIFIL’s mission in Lebanon, the PSP’s al-Anbaa news portal reported on Friday.

“This means that the government’s welcoming of the Lebanese Army’s plan in the Sep. 5 session was not a retreat nor a compromise, but rather confirmation of the decisions of the Aug. 5 and 7 sessions with international support and embracement and a more diplomatic language,” al-Anbaa added.

Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has condemned a "provocative" tour by the Israeli army's spokesperson Avichay Adraee in the southern town of al-Khiam.

In a statement, Salam described the tour in occupied Lebanese territories as an "aggressive behavior", calling on the international community to "exert maximum pressure on Israel to completely withdraw from the Lebanese territories it still occupies and to stop its land, sea, and air violations."

The handover of Palestinian weapons at the Ain al-Hilweh and al-Beddawi refugee camps will begin Saturday and continue for three days, the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee announced on Friday.

“Dialogue with Hamas is ongoing for the handover of its weapons,” Committee sources told Al-Arabiya’s Al-Hadath channel, adding that they expect the file to be finalized at the end of the month.

The government has named regulatory authorities for the country's electricity and telecommunications sectors, Information Minister Paul Morcos said late Thursday after a cabinet session.

Naming a regulatory authority for Lebanon's corruption-plagued electricity sector has been a key demand by international organizations.

Lebanon has granted a license to Elon Musk's Starlink to provide satellite internet services in the crisis-hit country known for its crumbling infrastructure.

The announcement was made late Thursday by Information Minister Paul Morcos who said Starlink will provide internet services throughout Lebanon via satellites operated by Musk's SpaceX.

Two people were wounded Friday in an Israeli drone strike on a car in the southern town of Aita al-Jabal, as Israel seemed to intensify its strikes on Lebanon despite a ceasefire reached in late November.

Israeli soldiers also detonated a house Friday in the outskirts of the border town of Aitaroun.