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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.

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Hamas Says 'Positive Response' from Mediators to its Ceasefire Amendments

Palestinians clear a road from building rubble with a bulldozer following overnight Israeli bombardment which hit the al-Habash family home at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 20, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians clear a road from building rubble with a bulldozer following overnight Israeli bombardment which hit the al-Habash family home at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 20, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Hamas Says 'Positive Response' from Mediators to its Ceasefire Amendments

Palestinians clear a road from building rubble with a bulldozer following overnight Israeli bombardment which hit the al-Habash family home at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 20, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Palestinians clear a road from building rubble with a bulldozer following overnight Israeli bombardment which hit the al-Habash family home at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on March 20, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Hamas says amendments it proposed to the most recent US plan for a ceasefire in Gaza “have been met with a positive response by the mediators.” However, “the official Israeli position has not yet become clear,” and no date for negotiations has been set, Hamas spokesperson Jihad Taha said Friday.

Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas appear to be reviving after having stalled for weeks, as US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators try to overcome differences that have repeatedly thwarted a deal.

Late Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he was sending negotiators to Qatar next week, but “there are still gaps between the parties.”

Hamas wants an agreement that ensures Israeli troops fully leave Gaza and that the war ends, while Israel says it cannot halt the war before the Palestinian militant group is eliminated. Post-war governance and security control of the enclave have also been contentious issues.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials say an Israeli military operation and airstrike killed seven Palestinians on Friday. The Islamic Jihad militant group named four of the dead as its members. Violence has surged throughout the West Bank during nearly nine months of war in Gaza.

Israel launched the war in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250.

Since then, Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

The war has caused massive devastation across the besieged territory and displaced most of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times. Israeli restrictions, ongoing fighting and the breakdown of law and order have curtailed humanitarian aid efforts, causing widespread hunger and sparking fears of famine. The top UN court has concluded there is a “plausible risk of genocide” in Gaza — a charge Israel strongly denies.