Melvin Ejim of Canada shoots as Lebanon’s Ali Haidar (#11) and Hayk Gyokchyan (#24) try to block during the FIBA Basketball World Cup group H game between Canada and Lebanon at Indonesia Arena in Jakarta on Aug. 27, 2023. (Credit: Adek Berry/AFP)
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A 7-year-old girl who was struck by a stray bullet earlier this month succumbed to her wounds on Saturday, one of her relatives confirmed to L’Orient Today. The girl had spent weeks in critical care after having been wounded on the playground of the Sisters of the Holy Hearts school in Hadath, south of Beirut. The bullet is thought to have originated from celebratory gunfire following the publication of Lebanese baccalaureate exam results. Incidents, injuries and deaths linked to stray gunfire regularly occur across Lebanon, amid the rampant and unregulated presence of firearms.
Libyan militants have released 80 of the 110 people they captured earlier this month from an irregular sea crossing attempt launched in Lebanon, irregular migrants’ rights activists confirmed to L’Orient Today on Saturday. On Aug. 10, The Tarek Bin Zeyad Brigade held 110 people, including 37 children, who had departed from Abdeh, Akkar, for ransom in a Benghazi detention center after intercepting their irregular migrant boat, a statement by activist network Alarm Phone said. “The repatriation mechanisms remain vague,” Lebanese lawyer Mohammad Sablouh, who regularly represents migrants in danger, told L’Orient Today on Friday. Earlier this month, the Lebanese Foreign Ministry said it would deny entry to “non-Lebanese” people sent back to Lebanon after attempting to irregularly migrate. Sablouh estimated that the majority of the boat’s passengers were Syrian. A second irregular migration boat that had been scheduled to depart the same night was intercepted by the Lebanese Army. Last Wednesday, the Lebanese Army claimed to have stopped 700 people from informally crossing the border from Syria to Lebanon in recent weeks, claiming that many among them intended to attempt irregular sea migration from Lebanese shores.
The Military Police have summoned stand-up comedy platform awk.word’s co-founder, Dany Abou Jaoude, and lawyer, Diala Chehade, for a hearing today after an eight-hour questioning last Thursday with comedian and actor Nour Hajjar. Hajjar declined to make a statement to L’Orient Today after his hearing. His summons came after awk.word posted a video of him performing a joke referencing the Lebanese Army. “Our aim is not to harm the Lebanese army, but to talk about the general situation in the country,” Bou Jaoude told L’Orient Today on Thursday, adding that no one had previously been summoned over content posted by awk.word.
The Lebanon men's national basketball team lost to Canada yesterday in their second group stage game in the FIBA World Cup after a first defeat by Latvia on Friday. Lebanon can no longer qualify for the second round in this World Cup but can still qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics depending on the results of the other four Asian nations in the competition (Jordan, Iran, China and Japan). The Cedars’ final group H game is Tuesday against France.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from over the weekend: “US Sanctions in Lebanon reach a 20-year high”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz
Humanitarian convoy reaches Rmeish, Ain Ibl, Dibil despite obstacles