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Israeli Towns Bordering Lebanon Locked Down after Infiltration Reports

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli soldier stands by a mobile artillery unit, near the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel January 15, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Israeli soldier stands by a mobile artillery unit, near the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel January 15, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
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Israeli Towns Bordering Lebanon Locked Down after Infiltration Reports

FILE PHOTO: An Israeli soldier stands by a mobile artillery unit, near the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel January 15, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: An Israeli soldier stands by a mobile artillery unit, near the Israel-Lebanon border, in northern Israel January 15, 2024. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo

Israel’s i24 News television said on Thursday that several northern Israeli towns bordering Lebanon were placed under lockdown after reports of a possible "terrorist" infiltration.
The television did not provide any further details.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army said that rocket alert sirens were launched in North Israel.
Since the surprise October 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel, there have been near daily exchanges of cross-border fire between the Israeli army, and Hezbollah and other armed Palestinian factions.

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Arab World

Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
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Lebanon's New President Says to Ensure State Has Exclusive Right to Carry Arms

This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)
This handout photo released by the Lebanese parliament shows Newly elected Lebanese president Joseph Aoun delivering a speech after his election in Beirut, on January 9, 2025. (Photo by LEBANESE PARLIAMENT / AFP)

Lebanon's newly elected President Joseph Aoun told lawmakers on Thursday that he will work to ensure the state has the exclusive right to carry arms, in his first speech at parliament after he was elected.

His comments were seen partly as a reference to Hezbollah's arsenal, which he had not commented on publicly as the former army commander.

In a first round of voting Thursday, Aoun received 71 out of 128 votes but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to win outright. Of the rest, 37 lawmakers cast blank ballots and 14 voted for “sovereignty and the constitution.”
In the second round, he received 99 votes.

In his speech in parliament, Aoun also pledged to carry out reforms to the judicial system and fight corruption.

He promised to control the country’s borders and “ensure the activation of the security services and to discuss a strategic defense policy that will enable the Lebanese state to remove the Israeli occupation from all Lebanese territories” in southern Lebanon, where the Israeli military has not yet withdrawn from dozens of villages.

He also vowed to reconstruct “what the Israeli army destroyed in the south, east and (Beirut’s southern) suburbs.”

Thursday’s vote came weeks after a tenuous ceasefire agreement halted a 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and at a time when Lebanon’s leaders are seeking international assistance for reconstruction.

Aoun said he would call for parliamentary consultations as soon as possible on naming a new prime minister.