The funeral for slain Hamas deputy political leader Saleh Arouri. (Credit: Mohammed Yassin/L'Orient Today)
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Catch up on yesterday’s LIVE coverage of Day 90 of the Israel-Hamas war here.
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to speak today, after vowing, in Wednesday’s speech, to retaliate against Israel’s assassination of a Hamas official in Beirut’s southern suburbs. On Wednesday, Nasrallah said he would address “current topics” during today’s speech. Israeli strikes continued to target southern Lebanon, while Hezbollah announced repeated cross-border attacks. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told US Envoy Amos Hochstein that the window of opportunity for a diplomatic solution to border clashes with Hezbollah was narrow, Axios reported.
More than one thousand people gathered for the funeral of three Hamas officials killed in an Israeli drone strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs on Tuesday, including the group’s deputy political chief Saleh al-Arouri. Including Arouri, seven senior members of Hamas and the Lebanese militant group Jamaa Islamiya were killed by the strike on a Hezbollah media office. The funeral procession headed from the Imam Ali mosque in Tariq al-Jdideh to the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila, where the burials took place. The US State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken and French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna agreed to seek steps to avoid an escalation in Lebanon following Tuesday’s attack.
Relatives of the Aug. 4, 2020 Beirut port blast held their monthly vigil commemorating the tragedy that killed more than 235 people, injured at least 7,000 and destroyed large swaths of the capital. The relatives decried the paralysis of the blast probe during their sit-in near the port, urging for the resolution of the latest complaint against lead investigator Judge Tarek Bitar. Bitar faces a lawsuit for allegedly abusing his power last January when he attempted to restart the probe after a year-long stall. Lebanon’s top prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat sued Bitar for naming additional suspects — including Oueidat himself — and scheduling hearings with them despite unsettled dismissal requests against him filed by suspects named in the probe.
Banque du Liban (BDL) figures published yesterday showed an 8.7 percent increase to the central bank’s foreign currency reserves since July, when the governorship was transferred to interim chief Wassim Mansouri. The additional $748 million, according to Byblos Bank Research Department Director Nassib Ghobril, can be tied to a shift in BDL policy away from financing the state as well as rising interest rates affecting sums the central bank has placed abroad. Other factors include curbing exchange rate speculation, businesses selling dollars to pay taxes, and continued dollar transfers to Lebanon. Last September, the International Monetary Fund hailed the new BDL leadership’s “efforts to halt the depletion of foreign exchange reserves.”
The Lebanese Army announced the interception of approximately 700 people attempting clandestine crossings from Syria to Lebanon over the past two weeks. The army also announced the arrest of nine Syrian nationals who had crossed the border hidden in a tanker truck and the driver who apparently smuggled them across. The army regularly makes such announcements. These arrests follow a period of ramped-up restrictions targeting Syrian refugees in Lebanon, particularly a rise in deportations and the negation of refugee status for displaced Syrians who have returned to their country.
Israel’s post-war plan for Gaza is for the enclave to be run by Palestinian bodies that do not pose a threat, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said. Reuters reported that Israel would shift towards a targeted approach in northern Gaza and the pursuit of Hamas leaders in the south of the enclave. The shift comes after mounting criticism, including from Israel’s allies, over the heavy civilian toll of its attacks. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar’s heads of diplomacy and the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized Israeli ministers’ call for the displacement of Gaza’s population to third countries.
In case you missed it, here’s our must-read story from yesterday: “How Israel sent drones in Lebanon to assassinate Arouri: What we know so far”
Compiled by Abbas Mahfouz.