Israeli Energy Minister Karen Elharrar has said that the Israeli proposal submitted to Lebanon to solve the sea border dispute is “good, constructive and moves towards a solution.”

EDUCITY & Beirut Expo have announced that Middle East Clean Energy, the premiere renewable and sustainable energy trade fair and conference in Lebanon and the wider Levant, will be held in Beirut on September 7-9, 2022.

Middle East Clean Energy 2022 is organized in response to an unprecedented rise in demand for modern equipment and technologies that leverage renewable energy in Lebanon and the region. In 2021 alone in Lebanon, despite its crisis, customers spent $800 million on clean energy solutions. 

Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, the armed depositor who took hostages Thursday at Federal Bank’s Hamra branch before turning himself in, has started a hunger strike, al-Jadeed TV reported on Friday.

A judge ordered a gunman who took up to 10 hostages at a Beirut bank to force the release of his trapped savings to stay behind bars Friday, apparently a bid to prevent copycats as desperation deepens over Lebanon's economic meltdown.

A few dozen relatives of Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein briefly closed a major road in Ouzai, saying that keeping him in jail breaches an agreement reached Thursday. The 42-year-old food-delivery driver surrendered after a seven-hour standoff in return for getting $35,000 of his money and promises that he would only be questioned then set free. No one was injured.

Democratic Gathering Bloc MP Taymour Jumblat met Friday with Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, a day after a meeting between his father Walid Jumblat and a delegation from Hezbollah.

"Our national and historic partnership is steady," the lawmaker said.

The Army Command announced Friday that it has received the Qatari financial donation that had been granted by Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad in support of servicemen’s salaries.

In a statement, the Command said all servicemen will get equal amounts of money as of today.

Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh Shami said Friday that Lebanon is at a crossroads between reforms and further collapse.

"We have drawn a roadmap for economic, financial and monetary reforms through an agreement with the International Monetary Fund," Shami said, urging for a quick implementation of the IMF's prerequisites in order to reach a final agreement as soon as possible.

Caretaker Labor Minister Mustafa Bayram announced Friday that the daily transport allowance for private sector employees has increased to LBP 95,000.

The amendment to the transport allowance has been signed by President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati and Bayram.

The family of Bassam al-Sheikh Hussein, a 42-year-old man who held bank staff hostage for hours Thursday, blocked the Ouzai road in protest of a judge's decision to arrest Bassam.

Judge Ghassan Khoury ordered at night the arrest of Hussein, after he was promised during negotiations as he was still in the bank that he would not be arrested.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat has discussed in his meeting with Liaison officer Wafiq Safa and Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's political aide Hussein al-Khalil many junctures, including the Presidential election and the maritime border demarcation, media reports said.

Hezbollah's officials informed Jumblat that a war with Israel is possible, "if Israel insists on depriving Lebanon of its rights."