People in Lebanon, among them Palestine refugees, are “suffering and paying the price for something not of their making,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said during a visit to the country.

“I met with Palestine refugees during my visit who are completely ravished by poverty, despair and lack of prospect. The humanitarian situation of Palestine refugees in Lebanon is extremely alarming. People are dying a slow death as many are unable to afford medicines or co-share the cost of treatment especially for chronic diseases and cancer. Levels of poverty and unemployment are unprecedented due to one of the worst economic crises in recent history. The spread of cholera is the latest tragic layer that adds to acute hardship and helplessness,” Lazzarini added.

The Constitutional Council on Thursday annulled the parliamentary membership of Rami Fanj (Tripoli, Sunni) and Firas al-Salloum, declaring the win of Faisal Karami (Tripoli, Sunni) and Haidar Nasser (Tripoli, Alawite).

Karami is an ally of Hezbollah and the March 8 camp while Fanj was a member of the 13-MP Change bloc. Nasser meanwhile was a member of Fanj’s electoral list.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Thursday that exiting the country’s multifaceted crisis should be through “a general solution and a general settlement.”

He added that such a settlement “should before anything else entail the election of a president as soon as possible, the formation of a new government, speeding up the cycle of the aspired reforms and reaching a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund.”

Parliament on Thursday held a seventh session for the election of a new president to no avail, prolonging the political crisis in the country.

As 50 blank votes were cast by Hezbollah and its allies, 42 votes went to MP Michel Mouawad, eight for “New Lebanon”, six went to the academic and historian Issam Khalife, two went to ex-minister Ziad Baroud and one went to jailed Customs chief Badri Daher.

The head of the Finance Parliamentary Committee, MP Ibrahim Kanaan, announced Wednesday that “remarkable progress” has been made in the discussions related to the establishment of a sovereign fund to manage Lebanon’s offshore oil and gas resources.

The LBP 15,000 dollar exchange rate for fees and taxes on imported goods will enter into effect as of December 1, 2022, caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil said on Wednesday.

Three banks were stormed Wednesday by three depositors in various Lebanese regions.

In the southern city of Tyre, the depositor Reda Reda stormed Bank Audi, demanding money for the treatment of his cancer-stricken mother, the Lebanese Depositors Association said.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea stressed Wednesday that the only way to achieve Lebanon’s “salvation” would be through the election of a “salvation president.”

“The LF is working for the rise of a real state in Lebanon,” Geagea said in a meeting with a Chinese delegation led by Qian Hongshan, a deputy director of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

On behalf of the United States of America, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has extended his “sincerest wishes to the people of Lebanon on their Independence Day,” which Lebanon marks on November 22 each year.

“The Lebanese people are renowned for their rich and dynamic culture, and we recognize the resilience they have exhibited the past 79 years in confronting a series of critical challenges,” Blinken said in a statement.

MP Ahmed al-Kheir of the mainly Sunni National Moderation bloc has lashed out at Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea without naming him, two days before a new presidential election session.

Describing Geagea as “the sponsor of the worst presidential settlement,” in reference to the understanding he reached with Michel Aoun prior to the latter’s election, Kheir accused the LF leader of seeking to install himself as the “spiritual guide of the opposition.”