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 Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Transport, has provided a grant to Lebanon’s ministry of public works and transport in support of Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, including navigation equipment and technical systems. Qatar’s ambassador to Lebanon Sheikh Saud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani participated in the official handover ceremony held at the airport, with the attendance and sponsorship of Lebanon’s Minister of Public Works and Transport Fayez Rasamny, charge d’affaires at the US embassy in Lebanon Keith Hannigan, airport security commander Brigadier-General Fadi Kfoury, and other officials. Sheikh Saud stressed in remarks during the ceremony that the grant reflects the deep ties between the two countries and Qatar’s firm commitment to supporting Lebanon. The envoy emphasised that at a time when Lebanon is facing delicate circumstances that require joint efforts to confront current challenges, Qatar continues to stand by its side through supporting official and vital institutions, including Beirut International Airport, in a way that contributes to enhancing its operational capabilities and improving the level of services provided. He also expressed his appreciation to Rasamny for the constructive co-operation, and to all officials and staff at Beirut International Airport for their outstanding efforts and dedicated work in serving this vital facility. Rasamny thanked Qatar for its grant and continued support, affirming that this gratitude would only grow, and that Qatar has always stood by Lebanon, particularly amid the country’s economic challenges and growing burdens and needs.  

A private school in the ‌heart of Beirut converted into a wartime shelter has become a flashpoint for social tensions ​brewing across Lebanon over the mass ‌displacement caused by the war between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. Since ‌Israel invaded Lebanon in pursuit of Iran-backed fighters ‌who fired across the border in March, ‌the Hariri School has been shut to students and converted to a collective shelter, with more than 1,500 displaced people living in its classrooms and tents in the school courtyard.In early May, parents of pupils — who have been taking classes online — protested against the indefinite closure and calledfor their children to be able to return to class. In a statement to Reuters, a representative of the school administration said it sympathised with the displaced. “But just as we are sympathising with them, there are also rights for our students to be at their premises,” the statement said. The two-month war has displaced more than a million people in Lebanon. While most are staying with relatives or renting apartments, at least 124,000 arestaying in government-run collective shelters. The displaced mostly hail from Lebanon’s ‌Shia Muslim community, from which Hezbollah draws most of its ​support. They have largely fled to areas predominantly inhabited by other sects, deepening sectarian tensions. The ​Rafic Hariri School is named after a former prime minister whose 2005 assassination triggered an era of instability in Lebanon. An international tribunal found members of Hezbollah responsible for his killing. This year, many of Hezbollah’s critics have blamed the group for pulling Lebanon into another war by firing on Israel in support of Iran. As internal divisions simmer, many Lebanese see echoes of the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. The representative of the Rafic Hariri School said she was worried history would repeat itself. She said that during a 2024 war between Israel and Hezbollah, displaced people broke into the school and damaged it, leaving the administration to foot the ‌bill without state support. She said displaced ‌families again entered the school this year without administrators’ permission. Mohammed Hammoud, 40, who supervises displaced families in the school and was himself displaced from southern Lebanon, said the families had been handed the keys and did not force their way in. They would leave if the school administration formally asked them to, but the government should find them a new shelter, he added. Lebanese Social Affairs Minister Haneen Sayed told Reuters in March the government was working on plans to cope with long-term displacement.For those staying at the school, returning home is not an option. Um Mahmoud’s apartment was badly damaged in Israeli strikes, rendering it uninhabitable. “Something might fall on me while I am in the house,” she said from the school’s kitchen. “We can’t fix it because the war is still on. We want to fix it and go back, but we can’t.” Volunteers helped the displaced families set up a kitchen to prepare thousands of meals daily, distributed both to the displaced and the surrounding community as a goodwill gesture.Despite a ceasefire agreed on April 16, fighting has continued in southern Lebanon, where Israeli troops are occupying a strip of Lebanese land. 

The death toll from the Israeli airstrike on Beirut has risen to seven dead and 26 wounded.In a statement on Wednesday, the Lebanese Ministry of Health confirmed that an Israeli airstrike on the Al Janah area of ​​Beirut led to seven dead and 26 wounded.Earlier today, the Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that five people were killed and 21 others were injured in an Israeli Airstrike on the Al Janah area in Beirut. 

Forced by yet another war in Lebanon to flee his home for the second time in just two years, and mourning lost relatives and friends, Hassan Kiki said he feels much older than 16."War has aged us... we have lived through what no one else has," the tall teen from south Lebanon told AFP in Beirut."I miss my school, my friends... I lost two cousins and two friends in a massacre in Shehabiyeh," he added, referring to a deadly Israeli strike in his town that killed at least seven people on March 11.Kiki is among more than a million people Lebanese authorities have registered as displaced since the country was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2.On that day, the Iran-backed group Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israel to avenge the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Israel, which never stopped bombing Lebanon despite a 2024 truce that sought to end the last war with Hezbollah, responded with widespread strikes, ground operations along the border, and an evacuation warning for swathes of the country.For many young Lebanese caught in the crossfire, their formative years have been jeopardised by repeated conflicts and crises."My childhood is gone," said Kiki. "Material losses can be made up for, but people do not come back."Since 2019, Lebanese have been battling a financial crisis that has locked them out of their bank deposits, while the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic made life even harder for everyone.Beirut's port exploded the following year in one of the world's largest non-nuclear blasts, destroying swathes of the Lebanese capital, and killing more than 220 people.The first time Zahraa Fares experienced war was in 2024, when she was just 14."We were still discovering what we like to do, what activities we enjoy, how we like to spend our days, then we were displaced... and could not do anything", said the now-16-year-old, who escaped the southern city of Nabatiyeh.Fares, who said she now feels "mentally crushed", found relief in an acting workshop in Beirut's Lebanese National Theatre intended to support war-affected youth like herself.Wassim al-Halabi, a 20-year-old Syrian who fled the war in his country nine years ago and is still living in Lebanon, has found himself stuck in another conflict.Working in a restaurant since the 2024 war forced him out of university, Halabi said he was "starting from zero to be able to stand on my two feet again, but war started again"."Our dreams are now on hold until the war ends."Lebanese authorities said on Thursday that Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,000 people since March 2.The toll includes 118 children."Cumulative trauma, cumulative adverse experiences and ongoing instability and unpredictability certainly put these children at higher risk... of developing psychiatric disorders and negative mental health outcomes," Evelyne Baroud, a child and adolescent psychiatrist told AFP. "Witnessing violence, physical assaults, killings, forced displacement, losing one's home, loss of a parent, all of these carry a very high risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder."Lebanon has been mired in conflicts and crises for decades, the worst of which was the 15-year civil war that erupted in 1975 and which divided the country into warring sectarian fiefdoms.For many years since the end of that war, which killed 150,000 people and left 17,000 more missing, bitter political divisions continued to plague Lebanon.The war also saw an Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon until 2000.While young Lebanese grew up hearing stories of war from their parents, they never expected to have to live through one themselves."My mother used to tell us about how they would be displaced, hear airstrikes, but I was not able to properly imagine it," Fares said. "I used to ask myself 'how could they shelter in a school?' but now I see it with my own eyes."At a gathering in Beirut to express solidarity for victims of the war, 18-year-old Laura al-Hajj wondered: "Why do I have so many concerns at my age?""We carried burdens that are much bigger than us, and beyond our age... I now just worry about being alive tomorrow."Hajj said she feels like "from generation to generation, we are all living through wars"."No child should have to go through what we went through." 

Lebanese President General Joseph Aoun strongly condemned Israeli airstrikes carried out yesterday by land and sea on Sidon area in southern Lebanon and on towns in the Bekaa Valley in the east.In a statement issued by the Lebanese Presidency on Saturday, Aoun said the strikes constitute a new violation of Lebanon's sovereignty and a clear breach of international commitments. He added that they reflect a disregard for the will of the international community, particularly United Nations resolutions calling for full compliance with Resolution 1701 in all its provisions.He described the continued attacks as "a clear act of aggression" aimed at undermining Lebanon's diplomatic efforts with partner and friendly nations, foremost among them the United States, to consolidate stability and halt Israeli hostilities against Lebanon.The Lebanese president renewed his call on countries sponsoring regional stability "to assume their responsibilities to immediately stop the attacks and exert pressure to ensure respect for international resolutions," in a manner that preserves Lebanon's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and prevents further escalation and tension in the region.The Israeli strikes carried out yesterday on southern Lebanon and parts of the Bekaa Valley left at least 10 people dead and several others injured. 

An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in Rashaya Al Wadi, eastern Bekaa, killed two people, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry.The attack coincided with Lebanese Army live-fire drills in Ras Al Naqoura, involving artillery fire toward the sea. Authorities urged civilians and fishermen to steer clear of the training zone.

A shipowner wanted over a 2020 blast at Beirut port that killed more than 220 people has been arrested in Bulgaria, officials said Tuesday.The August 4, 2020 disaster was one of the world's largest non-nuclear explosions, ravaging swathes of the Lebanese capital and injuring more than 6,500 people.Authorities have said the blast was triggered by a fire in a warehouse where tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertiliser had been stored haphazardly for years after arriving by ship, despite repeated warnings to senior officials.Beirut authorities identified Igor Grechushkin, a 48-year-old Russian-Cypriot citizen, as the owner of the Rhosus, the ship that transported the ammonium nitrate.Interpol issued red notices for him and two others in 2021.Grechushkin "has been placed in detention for a maximum duration of 40 days by a court decision on September 7, confirmed on appeal," a Sofia city court spokeswoman told AFP.The authorities requesting extradition have 40 days to send the necessary documents to effect such a move, according to Bulgarian law.Grechushkin was held on an Interpol red notice at Sofia airport on September 5 upon his arrival from Paphos in Cyprus, a Bulgarian judicial source confirmed to AFP.Wanted by the Lebanese judicial authorities, he is being sought for allegedly "introducing explosives into Lebanon, a terrorist act that resulted in the death of a large number of people, disabling machinery with the intent of sinking a ship", the Bulgarian prosecutor's office said in a statement.Grechushkin was arrested during a routine check of passengers arriving from Paphos, according to border police."He offered no resistance. He repeatedly insisted on speaking to a lawyer and, after consulting one, he fully cooperated," Zdravko Samuilov, head of the border police at Sofia Airport, told reporters Tuesday.He informed the officers that he came to Bulgaria "for tourism", Samuilov added.Beirut is preparing to request the extradition of Grechushkin, a Lebanese judicial source told AFP.Authorities rely "on Mr. Grechushkin's statements and on the information he holds... to shed light on essential aspects of the investigation", the source said.The Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged cargo ship sailing from Georgia and bound for Mozambique, is widely understood to have brought the fertiliser to Beirut in 2013.The Lebanese source said investigators would seek to determine "whether the cargo that departed from Georgia was genuinely destined for Mozambique or if its true destination was Beirut, and whether the ship had previously transported other shipments of ammonium nitrate".After it arrived in Lebanon, the Rhosus faced technical problems and security officials said it was impounded after a Lebanese company filed a lawsuit against its owner.Port authorities unloaded the ammonium nitrate and stored it in a run-down port warehouse with cracks in its walls, according to officials.The ship later sank in Beirut port in 2018.An investigation into the blast has been mired in legal and political wrangling.Judge Tarek Bitar resumed his investigation into the blast this year as Lebanon's balance of power shifted.This followed a war between Israel and Hezbollah that weakened the Iran-backed militant group, which had spearheaded a campaign for Bitar's resignation.Those questioned in the investigation include former Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab, as well as military and security officials.