Lebanon Continues Tightening Security Measures, Procedures

 The Saudi ambassador to Lebanon met with a delegation from the Renewal of the Homeland movement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
 The Saudi ambassador to Lebanon met with a delegation from the Renewal of the Homeland movement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Lebanon Continues Tightening Security Measures, Procedures

 The Saudi ambassador to Lebanon met with a delegation from the Renewal of the Homeland movement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
 The Saudi ambassador to Lebanon met with a delegation from the Renewal of the Homeland movement. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

The Lebanese authorities continued their efforts to reaffirm their determination to tighten the security situation in the country, following warnings issued by the embassies of Arab countries to their nationals to avoid traveling to Lebanon.

Recent battles that took place in a Palestinian refugee camp prompted Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, to call on their citizens to quickly leave Lebanese territory and avoid approaching areas of armed clashes.

On Aug. 1, the United Kingdom also updated its travel notice for Lebanon, advising against “all but essential travel” to parts of Lebanon’s south near the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh.

Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon, Walid Bukhari, said that the Kingdom’s decision “came as a result of the events of the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp.”

“Saudi Arabia has been and will be one of the biggest supporters of tourism in Lebanon, and it will prove this in the future if the Lebanese succeed in solving their crisis,” the ambassador told a delegation from the Renewal for Homeland Movement on Monday.

Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, for his part, noted that the security situation in Lebanon “does not warrant concern and panic.”

His comments came in response to Arab countries’ call on their citizens to leave Lebanese territory quickly.

Similarly, Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said on Monday that the situation in the Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon was under control.

“The atmosphere has calmed down, and security agencies continue to exert effort to arrest the perpetrators,” the minister told a press conference in Beirut.

He added: “There is no compromise on the application of the law,” stressing that Lebanon will not be used as a “platform for sending messages.”



Gaza Civil Defense Says Six Killed in Israeli Strikes

A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Six Killed in Israeli Strikes

A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)
A Palestinian man carries items he salvaged from a house targeted in an Israeli strike at the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 24, 2025. (AFP)

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli strikes killed at least six people on Saturday across the Palestinian territory, where Israel has ramped up its military offensive in recent days.

"Our teams have recovered at least six dead," civil defense agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

He said a couple were killed with their two young children in a pre-dawn strike on a house in the Amal quarter of the southern city of Khan Younis.

Another two people were killed in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp in the center of the territory, he said.

The Israeli military said it was unable to comment on individual strikes without their "precise geographical coordinates".

Israel resumed operations in Gaza on March 18, ending a two-month ceasefire.

Gaza's health ministry said Friday that at least 3,673 people had been killed in the territory since then, taking the war's overall toll to 53,822, mostly civilians.

Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Gunmen also took 251 hostages, 57 of whom remain in Gaza including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres said on Friday that Palestinians were enduring "the cruelest phase" of the war in Gaza, where more than a dozen food trucks were looted following the partial easing of a lengthy Israeli blockade.

The World Food Program called on Israel "to get far greater volumes of food assistance into Gaza faster", saying: "Hunger, desperation, and anxiety over whether more food aid is coming, is contributing to rising insecurity."

Aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip restarted on Monday for the first time since March 2, amid mounting condemnation of the Israeli blockade, which has resulted in severe shortages of food and medicines.