Lebanon Restores Power Supply after Complete Halt

This file photo taken on April 3, 2021 shows an aerial view of Lebanon's capital Beirut in darkness during power outage. (Photo by Dylan COLLINS / AFP)
This file photo taken on April 3, 2021 shows an aerial view of Lebanon's capital Beirut in darkness during power outage. (Photo by Dylan COLLINS / AFP)
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Lebanon Restores Power Supply after Complete Halt

This file photo taken on April 3, 2021 shows an aerial view of Lebanon's capital Beirut in darkness during power outage. (Photo by Dylan COLLINS / AFP)
This file photo taken on April 3, 2021 shows an aerial view of Lebanon's capital Beirut in darkness during power outage. (Photo by Dylan COLLINS / AFP)

Lebanon's power supplies were back to normal on Sunday after a blackout the previous day when the country's two biggest power stations shut down because of a fuel shortage, the Energy Ministry said.

The closure piled further hardship on Lebanese struggling with job losses, soaring prices and hunger wrought by the country's worsening financial meltdown.

Reuters quoted the ministry as saying that it had received central bank approval for $100 million in credit to issue fuel import tenders for electricity generation, adding the country's grid had resumed supplying the same amount of electricity as before the complete outage.

On Saturday, Lebanon's two largest power stations, Zahrani and Deir Ammar plants, shut down due to fuel shortages, bringing the Lebanese power network to a complete halt.

The Lebanese army agreed on Saturday evening to provide 6,000 kiloliters of gas oil distributed equally between the two power stations, the state electricity company said in a statement reported by the official National News Agency.

Lebanon has been paralyzed by an economic crisis that deepened as supplies of imported fuel have dried up. The Lebanese currency has fallen by 90% since 2019.

Many Lebanese normally rely on private generators that run on diesel, although that is in short supply.



Israel Conducts More Ground Raids in Southern Lebanon, Strikes Beirut Suburbs

Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
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Israel Conducts More Ground Raids in Southern Lebanon, Strikes Beirut Suburbs

Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)
Rubble is scattered at the site of an Israeli overnight airstrike that targeted a house in the town of Ablah in Lebanon's Bekaa valley on October 5, 2024. (AFP)

The Israeli military said on Saturday that special forces were carrying out ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities.

The military said troops also dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

Israeli airstrikes also hit areas in eastern Lebanon, according to state media. At least six people were killed, according to Lebanon’s state National News Agency (NNA).

Some 1,400 Lebanese, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed and some 1.2 million driven from their homes since Israel escalated its strikes in late September aiming to cripple Hezbollah and push it away from the countries’ shared border.

On Tuesday, Israel launched a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon. Nine Israeli troops have been killed in close fighting in the area in the past few days, which is saturated with arms and explosives, the military said.

Beirut’s southern suburbs was hit by 12 Israeli airstrikes early Saturday, including one that badly damaged a large hall Hezbollah has used to hold ceremonies, said NNA.

Later in the day, more strikes hit the area, from which tens of thousands of people have fled over the past two weeks.