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Germany Announces Evacuations from Lebanon

Smoke billows over Khiam, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjeyoun, near the Lebanese border with Israel, September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over Khiam, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjeyoun, near the Lebanese border with Israel, September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
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Germany Announces Evacuations from Lebanon

Smoke billows over Khiam, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjeyoun, near the Lebanese border with Israel, September 30, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke billows over Khiam, amid ongoing cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as pictured from Marjeyoun, near the Lebanese border with Israel, September 30, 2024. (Reuters)

Germany has evacuated non-essential staff, families of embassy workers and German nationals who are medically vulnerable out of Lebanon and will support others trying to leave, a joint statement by the foreign and defense ministries said on Monday.

The German foreign ministry raised its crisis level for missions in Beirut, Ramallah and Tel Aviv again at the weekend, though the embassies there remain operational.

There are currently 1,800 registered German citizens in Lebanon, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry said on Monday.

"The embassy continues to support the remaining Germans in Lebanon in their efforts to leave the country via commercial flights and other means. The Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defense continue to coordinate very closely on this," the statement said.

Israel has hit Lebanon with a two-week wave of attacks, eliminating Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and several commanders but also killing around 1,000 Lebanese and forcing 1 million to flee their homes. Hezbollah has pledged to confront any Israeli ground invasion of Lebanon.

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Arab World

Lebanon Transfers More Than 130 Syrian Prisoners Under Bilateral Agreement

The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)
The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)
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Lebanon Transfers More Than 130 Syrian Prisoners Under Bilateral Agreement

The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)
The Masnaa border crossing between Lebanon and Syria. (AFP file)

Lebanon transferred more than 130 Syrian detainees to their home country on Tuesday, a Lebanese judicial official and Syrian state media said, as part of an agreement the two sides signed last month.

Overcrowded Lebanese prisons host more than 2,200 Syrians held on various charges.

Many are still awaiting trial, while hundreds have been brought before military courts on charges of "terrorism" or related offences, including attacks on Lebanese forces.

Others are in custody for alleged membership in extremist or armed groups that were opposed to now ousted Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, who was supported by Lebanon's Hezbollah group during the Syrian civil war.

The judicial official told AFP that "106 convicted inmates were released from Roumieh Prison (north of Beirut), in addition to 31 others from Qobbeh Prison in Tripoli" in the country's north.

"The convoy headed to the Masnaa crossing to hand them over to the Syrian side," the official added.

Syrian state news agency SANA later reported that the detainees had reached the Syrian side of the border crossing.

It is the first batch of prisoners to be transferred under an agreement signed between the two countries in February, which will cover almost 300 convicts who have served 10 years or more in Lebanese prisons.

Under the agreement, they will be required to complete the remainder of their sentences in Syria.

"Today, the implementation of the agreement on the Syrian detainees in Lebanon and the mechanism to transport them to Syrian territory has begun," SANA quoted the charge d'affaires at Syria's embassy in Beirut, Iyad al-Hazzaa, as saying.

He said 136 detainees were among the first group, with those remaining to follow "upon completion of the necessary procedures for their release".

It was not immediately clear why there was a discrepancy in the reported number of detainees.

The issue of the detainees had been a sticking point in Beirut-Damascus relations following Assad's overthrow in December 2024.

Over the past year, both sides have repeatedly expressed their determination to open a new chapter in bilateral ties.

Arab World

Civilians Pay a Heavy Price as War in Lebanon Drives Death, Displacement, UN Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
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Civilians Pay a Heavy Price as War in Lebanon Drives Death, Displacement, UN Says

Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike that targeted an area in Beirut's southern suburbs on March 17, 2026. (AFP)

Civilians are paying a heavy price as the war in Lebanon continues to expand, driving death, injuries and displacement the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"Displacement is increasing incredibly quickly. Right ‌now, hundreds of ‌thousands of people ‌left ⁠their homes. Many ⁠leaving with very little, just the clothes they were wearing," said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator Imran Riza.

Lebanon was sucked ⁠into the war in ‌the ‌Middle East on March 2 when ‌Hezbollah opened fire at ‌Israel, saying it aimed to avenge the killing of Iran's supreme leader. Israel has responded ‌with an offensive that has killed more ⁠than ⁠800 people in Lebanon and forced more than 800,000 from their homes.

Almost a fifth of people living in Lebanon are now registered as displaced, according to Lebanese government figures, with displacement set to increase, the UN said.

Israeli air strikes on residential buildings in Lebanon raise concerns under international law, the human ‌rights ‌office said ‌on ⁠Tuesday said.

"Israeli air ⁠strikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense ⁠urban environments with ‌multiple ‌members of the ‌same family, ‌including women and children often killed together," ‌UN human rights office spokesperson ⁠Thameen Al-Kheetan ⁠told reporters in Geneva.

"Such attacks raise concerns under international humanitarian law," he added.

Arab World

Lebanese Army Says One Soldier Killed, Four Wounded in Israeli Strike

17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)
17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)
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Lebanese Army Says One Soldier Killed, Four Wounded in Israeli Strike

17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)
17 March 2026, Lebanon, Khiam: Smoke rises over Khiam, a southern Lebanese village roughly 6 km from the Israeli border, after Hezbollah missile strikes targeted advancing Israeli troops. (dpa)

One Lebanese soldier was killed and four were wounded in an Israeli airstrike in the city of Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army said on Tuesday, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah. 

The soldiers were struck while travelling by car and motorcycle and were taken to ‌hospital, the army ‌said in a post on ‌X, ⁠adding in a ⁠subsequent statement that one of the wounded had died of his injuries. 

The Israeli military said it was aware of reports that Lebanese soldiers were wounded in a strike in southern Lebanon and that the incident was ⁠under review. 

It said that it operates ‌against Hezbollah and ‌not against the Lebanese Armed Forces. 

The strike comes ‌amid intensifying Israeli attacks across Lebanon, which have ‌killed more than 880 people and displaced more than 1 million, according to Lebanese authorities. 

The Lebanese army has also reported casualties in recent days, ‌including an incident earlier this month in which three soldiers were among ⁠those ⁠killed in Israeli strikes, according to the army. 

Israel's military, which has occupied five positions in southern Lebanon since a November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, sent additional forces into the country after the group fired a salvo of rockets on March 2, dragging Lebanon into the expanding US-Israeli war with Iran. 

Israel's Defense Minister Israel Katz has warned Lebanon that it could face territorial losses unless Hezbollah was disarmed.