Lebanon charged the country's former central bank governor with illicit enrichment and issued an arrest warrant against the detained banker, the second in less than two months, judicial officials said Thursday.
Riad Salameh, 74, was charged by the first examining magistrate of Mount Lebanon Nicola Mansour over an apartment that was rented in France to be a substitute office for the central bank if needed, the four official said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Full StoryStrikes rocked a village near the southern Lebanese city of Tyre on Thursday, state media said, after Israel issued an evacuation call for the area.
The strikes on Al-Hawsh coincided with an exodus of civilians from the Rashidieh camp for Palestinian refugees near Tyre which was also covered by the evacuation warning, the official National News Agency said.
Full StoryThousands of Lebanese have flocked to a Christian area in the eastern Bekaa Valley after Israel warned civilians to leave the city of Baalbek and surrounding areas ahead of airstrikes this week.
Jean Fakhry, head of the Union of Municipalities of the area of Deir al-Ahmar, described a “massive human influx” in the wake of the warning, with the road turning "into a parking lot.”
Full StoryIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein and Middle East adviser Brett McGurk Thursday that any ceasefire deal with Hezbollah would have to guarantee Israeli security.
"The prime minister specified that the main issue is not paperwork for this or that deal, but Israel's determination and capacity to ensure the deal's application and to prevent any threat to its security from Lebanon," Netanyahu's office said after the meeting in Jerusalem.
Full StoryThe Lebanese health ministry said Israeli strikes on three locations in south Lebanon Thursday killed six rescuers affiliated with Hezbollah or its ally Amal.
The strikes killed five paramedics with the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic Health Committee and one with the Amal-linked Risala Scouts, the health ministry said.
Full Story
The United Nations children’s agency said on Thursday that the Israel-Hezbollah war has killed at least one child a day in Lebanon over the past month.
Full StoryRockets fired from Lebanon killed two more people in northern Israel on Thursday, Israeli medics said, raising the death toll there to seven in what marked the deadliest strikes to hit Israel since its military invaded southern Lebanon earlier this month.
The attack came as senior U.S. diplomats were in the region to push for cease-fires in Lebanon and Gaza, hoping to wind down the wars in the Middle East in the Biden administration's final months.
Full Story
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea has said that tensions between Lebanese displaced by the Israel-Hezbollah war and hosting communities might lead to “instability” but not to a “civil war,” adding that the Lebanese parties do not want such a conflict.
Full StoryThe Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said three people were killed Thursday in Israeli strikes on Syria's Qusayr region near the border with Lebanon, where Israel said it hit Hezbollah weapons depots.
The Britain-based war monitor said three strikes targeted the town of Qusayr, where Hezbollah holds sway, and surrounding areas.
Full StoryThe Israeli military has warned people to evacuate from more areas of southern Lebanon, including a built-up Palestinian refugee camp. Israeli airstrikes, meanwhile, killed at least eight people in different parts of the country on Thursday.
The Rashidiyeh refugee camp near the port city of Tyre is one of several dating back to the 1948 Mideast war, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven out of what is now Israel.
Full Story