Lebanon

17 August 2022; MEMO: Lebanon has received a third batch of monthly financial assistance from Qatar, as the country and its health sector continue to suffer from the severe economic crisis.

According to Lebanon's National News Agency (NNA), the assistance from the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) is used for the purchasing of fuel and oil required to run the country's healthcare facilities every month.

BEIRUT, Aug 16 (Reuters) - A Lebanese judge has ordered the release from detention without charge of man who last week took hostages at a Beirut bank in an attempt to access his savings frozen after the country's 2019 financial implosion, the man's brother and a legal group said.

Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, 42, entered the Federal Bank of Lebanon branch in Beirut's Hamra district on Thursday and threatened employees with a firearm, agreeing to leave only after the bank pledged to give him $35,000 out of a total of his more than $200,000 deposit. 

BEIRUT, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Foreign Ministry on Monday strongly condemned Israeli missile attacks on Syria and the use of the Lebanese airspace to launch the attack.

The ministry warned in a statement against "the consequences of this aggressive behavior, and the continued violation of Lebanese sovereignty which constitutes a violation of international laws and treaties."

The ministry added that it would file a complaint to the UN Security Council, asking it to intervene to formally end the ongoing Israeli violations.

BEIRUT, Aug 14 (Reuters) - The father of a man charged with attempting to murder novelist Salman Rushdie has locked himself in at his home in southern Lebanon and is refusing to speak to anyone, town mayor Ali Tehfe said on Sunday.

The suspect in Friday's attack in New York state has been identified by police as 24-year-old Hadi Matar from New Jersey. He has pleaded not guilty. Matar is originally Lebanese and his family comes from the south Lebanon town of Yaroun.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — With 100 days to go until the World Cup starts in Qatar, Human Rights Watch on Friday again urged FIFA and the host nation to improve compensation for migrant workers and their families.

The rights group called for a “comprehensive remedy program for workers who suffered serious harms, including deaths, injuries, and wage theft” while working on World Cup-related projects like stadiums, transport and hotels.

09 August 2022; MEMO: A Palestinian security official was shot dead late yesterday in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, three Palestinian security officials said, just hours after a truce between Israel and Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza, Reuters reports.

Said Alaadin was shot in the head by unknown assailants and later died of his wounds, the sources told the news wire.

09 August 2022; MEMO: The head of Lebanon's powerful Hezbollah movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, today warned against any Israeli attempts to expand their targeting of Palestinian resistance members to Lebanon, Reuters reported.

"Any attack on any human being will not go unpunished or unanswered," Nasrallah said in a televised address marking Ashura, a commemoration for Shia Muslims of the killing of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)'s grandson Hussein.

BEIRUT, Aug 9 (NNN-NNA) – Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, yesterday agreed with his ministers, on the initial criteria and steps to be adopted for the implementation of the strategy to return Syrian refugees to their homeland, Lebanon’s Presidency said in a statement.

BEIRUT, Aug 8 (NNN-NNA) – Syrian ambassador to Lebanon, said that, UN should deliver their financial support to Syria, to encourage the home return of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

“We have called on UN organisations several times, to offer their financial support for Syrians inside their home country, instead of in Lebanon, to encourage their return to Syria,” Ali Abdel Karim Ali told TV channel, Aljadeed News.

Syria is offering incentives for overseas Syrians to return, such as, exemption from military service and other legal obligations, Ali added.

BEIRUT, August 7. /TASS/: A ceasefire in the zone of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will come into force at 23:30 local time, which will be announced by a Egyptian mediator, Muhammad al-Hindi, a senior member of the Gaza-based terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, told Al Jazeera TV on Sunday.

"It will happen closer to the midnight, at 23:30. By this time, all details will be agreed and the ceasefire will take effect," he said.

It was expected earlier that the ceasefire will come into force at 20:00 local time.