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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)
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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.

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Israel Continues Ground Operation in South Lebanon with Incursion in Shebaa

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Continues Ground Operation in South Lebanon with Incursion in Shebaa

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam on October 13, 2024. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted the southern Lebanese village of al-Khiam on October 13, 2024. (AFP)

Israel opened on Tuesday a new front in southern Lebanon in the Shebaa Farms in the east. Israel is already operating in the eastern sector, where it is trying to advance in border villages, and the western sector, where it is engaged in heavy fighting with Hezbollah on the outskirts of the town of Aita al-Shaab.

Israel radio said the Fifth Brigade has joined the ground operations in the South, carrying out a limited incursion in Shebaa.

Shebaa is located on the foothills of Jabal al-Sheikh mountain and extends to the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

The Lebanese government says Israel has been occupying Shebaa, as well as the Kfar Shouba Hills and northern sections of the village of Ghajar, since 1976.

Hezbollah had kicked off his “support front” with Hamas in Gaza in October 2023 by launching attacks on Israeli military positions in Shebaa.

Military experts say that Shebaa’s elevated position protects it from sophisticated attacks. This is especially true for the Arqoub region, which is predominantly Sunni and Druze. Hezbollah has been targeting the area with rockets daily since the beginning of the conflict.

The experts added that the elevation facilitates ground offensives from Israel. Its barren terrain also makes it difficult for Hezbollah to take position there as there is no vegetation in which its fighters can hide.

The position can also be a weakness for the Israeli forces because their military vehicles are exposed to rocket fire from Lebanon, they added.

By opening the Shebaa front, Israeli forces would now be operating along the entire southern border with Lebanon, stretching around 100 kms.

The experts believe that the incursion is an attempt to make up for Israeli forces’ failures in advancing in Kfar Kila and al-Adaisseh, and that they are trying to reach the town of al-Khiam, which had come under heavy raids in recent days.