Lebanon

BEIRUT, May 5 (NNN-NNA) – All the preparations for Lebanon’s parliamentary elections “have been completed,” Lebanese Interior Minister, Bassam Mawlawi, announced yesterday.

“The legislative elections will take place for sure. All the preparations have been completed. The security forces are fully ready and will not hesitate to play their role,” Mawlawi confirmed, in an exclusive interview with the Al-Hurra TV channel.

BEIRUT, May 2 (NNN-NNA) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is willing to help Lebanon overcome its severe crisis, said IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, emphasising the importance of implementing reforms in a timely manner.

“Timely implementation of agreed-upon reforms is vital to obtaining the much-needed funding from the international community,” Georgieva said, according to a statement released by Lebanon’s Council of Ministers yesterday.

BEIRUT, Apr 27 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese children’s health is in great danger, as their vaccination rate has dropped to 60 percent or less, amid the current economic crisis, Lebanon’s Health Minister, Firas Abiad, said yesterday.

“These indicators show that our children are in great danger and they may turn from productive people in the future, to a segment in dire need for help and medical care, which is dangerous for our community and the country as a whole,” Abiad was quoted as saying.

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) — Running for parliament for the first time, independent Hania Zaatari walks down the meandering alleyways of the old souk in the port city of Sidon, telling impoverished workers and traders that fixing Lebanon’s devastating economic crisis is her top priority.

“The economic plan needs to consider marginalized people like you and give them a chance for revival,” she said to 70-year-old Ahmed Abu Dhahr, one of two carpenters remaining on a street that just two years ago boasted roughly 50.

BEIRUT, April 26 (Reuters) - Lebanon's cabinet ordered the military court on Tuesday to investigate the capsize of a migrant boat after colliding with a naval vessel giving chase, with at least six dead and dozens missing.

The boat carrying Lebanese and Syrian migrants sank off the coast near the impoverished northern city of Tripoli on Saturday night. The U.N. refugee agency said around 80 people were on board, including men, women and children.

Some 45 were rescued and six bodies recovered.

25 April 2022; MEMO: A rocket launched from Lebanon on Monday struck harmlessly in Israel, which responded with artillery fire, in an apparent spill-over of Palestinian-Israeli confrontations at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque, Reuters reports.

Flare-ups along the Israeli-Lebanese border are rare and Israel's chief military spokesman, Brigadier-General Ran Kochav, estimated that Palestinian groups in Lebanon fired the rocket, which he said hit open ground in northern Israel.

BEIRUT, Apr 25 (NNN-NNA) – The Lebanese army, yesterday, rescued 45 people and recovered eight bodies, after a migrant boat sunk in the waters off the northern city of Tripoli.

The Lebanese army said at a press conference that, high waves submerged the overloaded boat, which carried more than 50 people.

Some of the rescued people were treated on the ground, while others were transferred to nearby hospitals, to receive emergency medical care.

Search operations began Saturday night, shortly after the boat, leaving the coastal town of Qalamoun, in the sea.

BEIRUT, Apr 25 (NNN-NNA) – The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), yesterday called for continuous international support for Lebanon and the refugees and migrants hosted in the country, according to a joint press release.

The appeal by the two UN agencies came, a day after a boat reportedly carrying 84 people capsized, off the coast of Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli, killing at least six, including a 40-day-old baby, according to the press release.

TRIPOLI, Lebanon (AP) — The Lebanese military Sunday recovered the bodies of five migrants whose boat carrying nearly 60 people sank the night before, raising the death toll to six, state media reported.

The National News Agency said the five bodies were found near a small island off the coast of the northern city of Tripoli. It earlier reported that eight bodies were recovered but later lowered the number to five.

22 April 2022; MEMO: The European Commission announced on Thursday that the EU will send €20 million (almost $22 million) of humanitarian aid to Lebanon to ease the food insecurity exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, Anadolu News Agency reports.

"To support the most vulnerable segments of the population in Lebanon, the EU has allocated an additional €20 million in humanitarian aid to respond to rising food insecurity and other needs," the EU executive body said in a statement.