Minister of Tourism: 1.35 Mln People Visited Lebanon This Summer

 The skyline of Beirut is seen during sunset from Mansourieh, Lebanon July 25, 2023. (Reuters)
The skyline of Beirut is seen during sunset from Mansourieh, Lebanon July 25, 2023. (Reuters)
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Minister of Tourism: 1.35 Mln People Visited Lebanon This Summer

 The skyline of Beirut is seen during sunset from Mansourieh, Lebanon July 25, 2023. (Reuters)
The skyline of Beirut is seen during sunset from Mansourieh, Lebanon July 25, 2023. (Reuters)

Caretaker Tourism Minister Walid Nassar revealed that 1.35 million travelers, with 30 percent of them being foreigners, had arrived in Lebanon this summer.

The country received the highest number of expatriates since 2018, reviving the tourism, service and restaurant sectors as helping it deal with its severe economic and living crises.

The Ministry of Tourism has sponsored 132 festivals this summer.

Nassar stressed that Lebanon boasts all the elements “that allow us to live in this country, invest in it, and work towards its economic and financial development.”

He emphasized the importance of implementing administrative decentralization to boost investments and development.

“Despite the poor economic and living conditions we are experiencing, from airport, infrastructure, electricity, and telecommunications problems, the Lebanese love life and refuse to give up.”

Meanwhile, caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport Ali Hamieh stressed on Saturday the need to maintain the electricity supply at Beirut international airport and the capital’s seaport as the country grapples with a stifling energy crisis.



Hezbollah Says it Struck Explosives Factory South of Haifa

A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
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Hezbollah Says it Struck Explosives Factory South of Haifa

A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)
A street in Haifa in northern Israel is nearly deserted as Yom Kippur begins at sunset on October 11, 2024. (Photo by Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP)

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said on Saturday that it launched a salvo of missiles at an Israeli military base to the south of the city of Haifa.
Hezbollah fighters were "targeting the explosives factory there with a salvo of... missiles," the group said in a statement.
Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel, with the Israeli military saying it had intercepted a projectile launched from Lebanon.
This came as the Israeli military made more evacuation orders to southern Lebanon residents.
The military has ordered residents of 22 southern Lebanese villages to evacuate to areas north of the Awali River, according to a statement released on Saturday.

Lebanese authorities said Friday that 60 people were killed and 168 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,229 dead and 10,380 wounded.
Israel has been escalating its campaign against Hezbollah with waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion at the border, after a year of exchanges of fire.