Gov’t Decision to Delay Daylight Savings Puts Lebanon in Two Time Zones

Beirut, Lebanon (AFP)
Beirut, Lebanon (AFP)
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Gov’t Decision to Delay Daylight Savings Puts Lebanon in Two Time Zones

Beirut, Lebanon (AFP)
Beirut, Lebanon (AFP)

Lebanon has woken up in two time zones amid an escalating dispute between political and religious authorities over the government’s decision to postpone winter clock changes till after Islam’s holy month of fasting, Ramadan, is over.

Rising tensions, which reflected fragile ties between Lebanon’s social components, had forced caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati to cancel a cabinet session.

Mikati issued the decision on Thursday to delay entering daylight savings time till April 20, instead of rolling the clocks forward an hour on the last weekend of March.

Christian political forces rejected the government’s decision and circulated audio clips and data confirming that their regions across Lebanon will adhere to universal timing and not wait until after Ramadan.

The General Secretariat of the Kataeb Party, a Christian political party in Lebanon, released a statement demanding all workers in its central to attend work according to the universal time.

“All caucuses will be held on schedule, according to the universal daylight savings time,” said the Kataeb.

Businesses and media organizations, including two of Lebanon’s main news channels LBCI and MTV, announced they too would enter daylight savings on Saturday night as calls for disobedience gained steam.

On Saturday, the influential Maronite Church said it would disregard the decision and would set its clocks forward on Saturday night.

Mikati, for his part, refused to give any sectarian character to his decision and insisted that it was just an “administrative” measure.

“Some want to divert attention from their obstruction of the presidential election process by targeting the government,” claimed Mikati.

“We are witnessing an attempt to drag the country into a sectarian division to fuel conflicts, and to give a purely administrative procedure an abhorrent sectarian turn,” said Mikati in defense of his decision.



Israeli Military Issues Thousands of Call-up Notices

FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
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Israeli Military Issues Thousands of Call-up Notices

FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: A picture released by the Israeli Army says to show Israeli soldiers conducting operations in a location given as Tel Al-Sultan area, Rafah Governorate, Gaza, in this handout image released April 2, 2025. Israeli Army/Handout via REUTERS

The Israeli military was issuing call-up notices to thousands of reservists on Saturday to support an expansion of its offensive in Gaza, Israeli media reported, after the prime minister announced that his upcoming visit to Azerbaijan was postponed.
The reservists will be deployed to Israel's border with Lebanon and in the occupied West Bank, replacing regular soldiers who will lead a new offensive in Gaza, the news site Ynet reported.
The military had no immediate comment, Reuters said.
Earlier, the prime minister's office announced that Benjamin Netanyahu was rescheduling his May 7-11 visit to Azerbaijan, citing recent developments in Gaza and Syria.
The office, which also cited "the intense diplomatic and security schedule", did not announce a new date for the visit. Netanyahu had been expected to meet with President Ilham Aliyev.
Israeli media reported on Friday that the security cabinet had approved plans for an expanded operation in the Gaza Strip.
Israel broke a fragile ceasefire with Hamas in March after seeking to extend it without engaging in talks to permanently end the war. Hamas says it would release the remaining hostages in Gaza only in exchange for an end to the war.
The military has since intensified its bombing campaign and carved out wide buffer zones in Gaza, squeezing the 2.3 million population into an ever narrower zone in the center of the enclave and along the coast and shutting off aid supplies.
Israel's leadership has asserted that it is committed to its war goals of defeating Hamas and bringing back the last 59 hostages held in Gaza.
So far, 192 hostages have been released through negotiations and Israeli military operations since November 2023. Most had been abducted on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led groups stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's retaliatory war has reduced much of the territory to rubble and killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to health officials in Gaza.