Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 67 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Hezbollah announced the death of another two of its fighters while Israeli strikes caused heavy damage to a Mosque in Jibbain, Sour, and injured another person in Markaba, reported L’Orient Today’s correspondent in southern Lebanon. With Hezbollah’s latest announcement, the number of party members killed since Oct. 8 has risen to 105 people, by our count. Hezbollah continued announcing strikes on northern Israel while the Israeli strikes fell across southern Lebanon. Several homes were targeted by Israeli shelling, one of which sparked a fire in Aita al-Shaab, residents reported. Shelling on Taybeh hit electricity cables which interrupted electricity provision in the area.
Parliament passed laws on retirement reform and renewable energy decentralization and approved loans funding road renovation, social protection and Batroun sanitation infrastructure. The retirement pension reform draft law transitions from an end-of-service indemnity system to a retirement pension system. The decentralized energy law allows private sector renewable electricity producers to sell and distribute up to 10MW of their production — as delineated in a cabinet decision from March — through Electricité du Liban’s (EDL) network, which has been exclusively used by public actors. Parliament also approved a $300 million loan from the World Bank in additional funding for the Social Safety Net Project (ESSN) — which provides cash assistance to over 90,000 vulnerable households — as well as a more than $59 million loan from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to set up a sanitation system in Batroun and a $165 million loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) aimed at renovating and improving Lebanon's road network. The capital controls law, which aims to regulate informal restrictions set by commercial banks on depositors’ foreign currency funds since Oct. 2019, was sent back to the joint parliamentary committees.
The caretaker cabinet is scheduled to convene today to discuss the future of the Lebanese Army’s leadership. The meeting coincides with the second consecutive day of Parliamentary legislative sessions called to address the potential military vacancy. Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwan said yesterday that his party was continuing its contacts to "stop the obstruction" to an extension of army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun’s term — a proposal vehemently rejected by the Free Patriotic Movement. Several parliamentarians insisted on passing a law extending Aoun’s term even if the cabinet makes such a decision itself. Parliament did not address the future of the army’s leadership during yesterday’s session. "The military institution will not be destabilized," Amal MP Ali Hassan Khalil said after yesterday’s Parliament session. "There can be no vacuum at the head of the military institution," Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said.
A bus accident on the Dbayeh, Mount Lebanon highway hospitalized 19 people, the Lebanese Red Cross said in a statement. L'Orient Today's correspondent in the north reported that the accident occurred when the bus flipped over on the eastbound lane of the bridge in front of the Internal Security Forces' anti-riot brigade barracks, ultimately coming to rest in a garden by the Babel restaurant.
At least 18,787 people have been killed in Gaza, according to figures reported by Reuters, while Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant estimated the war would continue for "months." UN Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA) chief Phillippe Lazzarini noted desperation and hunger in Gaza, where there are "more and more people who haven't eaten for one two or three days," Reuters reported. The delivery of aid, in quantities criticized as insufficient by international actors, into Gaza has been impeded by continued fighting across the enclave. Read a full summary of events from day 69 of the war here.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: How did Operation Al-Aqsa Flood change Lebanon’s youth?
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz