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US, Russia Issue Travel Advisories to Lebanon

Smoke billows in the Israeli northern town of Metulla from cross-border rockets launched by Hezbollah from the Lebanese side, as seen from Khiam village, Lebanon, 26 June 2024. EPA/STR
Smoke billows in the Israeli northern town of Metulla from cross-border rockets launched by Hezbollah from the Lebanese side, as seen from Khiam village, Lebanon, 26 June 2024. EPA/STR
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US, Russia Issue Travel Advisories to Lebanon

Smoke billows in the Israeli northern town of Metulla from cross-border rockets launched by Hezbollah from the Lebanese side, as seen from Khiam village, Lebanon, 26 June 2024. EPA/STR
Smoke billows in the Israeli northern town of Metulla from cross-border rockets launched by Hezbollah from the Lebanese side, as seen from Khiam village, Lebanon, 26 June 2024. EPA/STR

The US embassy in Beirut issued a travel advisory on Thursday urging “US citizens to strongly reconsider travel to Lebanon”, citing a “complex security environment”.
“We remind US citizens to strongly reconsider travel to Lebanon. The security environment remains complex and can change quickly”, the embassy said on its website.
Russia’s embassy in Beirut has also called on its citizens to refrain from traveling to Lebanon until the situation settles down in the southern part of the country.
Earlier, several Arab and Western countries issued travel advisories calling on their citizens to refrain from traveling to the Mediterranean country.

Israel and Hezbollah have traded near-daily cross-border fire since the Hamas October 7 attack on Israel sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.
Tensions have been rising in recent days with growing exchanges of fire.

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Lebanon Army Receives Additional $20 Mln from Qatar in Support to Troops

27 June 2024, Lebanon, Jounieh: Lebanese army soldiers from the airborne brigade secure an area as medics help civilians acting as dead and injured of an attack during a drill carried by the Lebanese army, Red Cross and Civil defense in the town of Jounieh, north of Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa
27 June 2024, Lebanon, Jounieh: Lebanese army soldiers from the airborne brigade secure an area as medics help civilians acting as dead and injured of an attack during a drill carried by the Lebanese army, Red Cross and Civil defense in the town of Jounieh, north of Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa
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Lebanon Army Receives Additional $20 Mln from Qatar in Support to Troops

27 June 2024, Lebanon, Jounieh: Lebanese army soldiers from the airborne brigade secure an area as medics help civilians acting as dead and injured of an attack during a drill carried by the Lebanese army, Red Cross and Civil defense in the town of Jounieh, north of Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa
27 June 2024, Lebanon, Jounieh: Lebanese army soldiers from the airborne brigade secure an area as medics help civilians acting as dead and injured of an attack during a drill carried by the Lebanese army, Red Cross and Civil defense in the town of Jounieh, north of Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa

The Lebanese army has received an additional $20 million from Qatar in support of Lebanese troops, Lebanon's state agency NNA said on Monday.

The support comes at a crucial time, with the Israeli military and Hezbollah trading fire across Lebanon's southern border in parallel with the Gaza war. The Lebanese army is not involved in the hostilities but one Lebanese soldier was killed by Israeli shelling in December.

A security source told Reuters that the new Qatari aid was a continuation of an earlier
$60 million package announced in 2022 that was distributed in installments to soldiers to support their salaries.

The source said $100 would be distributed to each soldier every month.

A five-year economic meltdown has slashed the value of the Lebanese pound against the dollar, driving down most soldiers' wages to less than $100 per month.

The amount is barely enough to afford a basic subscription to a generator service that could offset the 22-hour cuts in the state electricity grid.

To supplement their low salaries, many troops have taken extra jobs and some have quit, raising concerns that the institution - one of few in Lebanon that can rally national pride and create unity across its fractured sectarian communities - could be fraying.