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.



Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill 9, Including 2 Children

A Palestinian boy plays among the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)
A Palestinian boy plays among the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Strikes in Gaza Kill 9, Including 2 Children

A Palestinian boy plays among the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)
A Palestinian boy plays among the rubble of a destroyed building following an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, 04 October 2024. (EPA)

Palestinian medical officials said Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza early Saturday have killed at least nine people, including two children.

One strike hit a group of people in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, killing at least five people, including two children, according to the Health Ministry’s Ambulance and Emergency service.

Another strike hit a house in the northern part of Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four people, the Awda hospital said. The strike also left a number of wounded people, it said.

The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment on the strikes, but has long accused Hamas of operating from within civilian areas.

Earlier, the army warned residents in parts of central Gaza to evacuate, saying its forces will soon operate there in response to Palestinian fighters.  

The warnings cover areas along a strategic corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a ceasefire deal earlier this summer.  

The military warned Palestinians in areas of Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps, located along the Netzarim corridor, to evacuate to the area the military designated a humanitarian zone, an area called Muwasi along Gaza’s shore.  

It’s unclear how many Palestinians are currently living in this area, parts of which were evacuated previously.  

Israeli forces have repeatedly returned to heavily destroyed areas of Gaza where they had fought earlier battles against Hamas and other fighters since the start of war one year ago.  

The vast majority of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million people has been displaced in the war, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid tent camps.  

Others have remained in their homes despite being ordered to leave, saying nowhere in the isolated coastal territory feels safe.  

At least 41,825 Palestinians have been killed and 96,910 wounded in Israel's military offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, the enclave's health authorities said on Saturday.