Qatar emir tells Aoun he is willing to help include Lebanon in cease-fire agreement

BEIRUT — Lebanese President Joseph Aoun announced Thursday that he had received a phone call from the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, during which the latter "offered, on behalf of the Qatari people, his condolences to the victims of the relentless Israeli attacks against Lebanon and expressed Qatar's solidarity with Lebanon in the difficult circumstances it is going through," according to the Lebanese presidency on X.

The Qatari emir also conveyed "his willingness to offer his help for anything that could contribute to ending the military escalation, particularly with regard to including Lebanon in the cease-fire agreement between the United States of America and Iran," the statement from the presidency added.

President Aoun, for his part, said he "thanked the emir of Qatar for his consistently supportive positions toward Lebanon and its people, saluting the support provided by Qatar to Lebanon and the Lebanese in all fields and under all circumstances, notably in terms of medical equipment and emergency aid."

Health Minister Rakan Nasreddine said Thursday that "203 martyrs and more than 1,000 wounded" have been reported following the previous day's massive Israeli airstrikes, while Civil Defense reported "254 killed and 1,165 injured."

A spokesperson for Civil Defense told L’Orient Today that "many of the wounded are being treated on site and are not being transferred to hospitals, which may affect the numbers reported by the Health Ministry." He added: "We rely on the data from the Civil Defense operations room, which are transmitted by the teams on the ground, and the figures from the Health Ministry may increase later when a final tally is made."