Date set for signing Lebanon-Israel maritime deal

An Israeli soldier walks along a wall on the Israeli border with Lebanon in Ras Hanikra, Israel, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022. (AP)
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Updated 16 October 2022
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Date set for signing Lebanon-Israel maritime deal

  • President Michel Aoun announced Beirut’s approval of the US demarcation proposal, saying the agreement would “lift Lebanon from the abyss in which it was plunged”
  • Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid described the agreement as “historic”

BEIRUT: Lebanon and Israel will sign an agreement on demarcating their maritime border on Oct. 27, a source in the Lebanese presidency told Arab News on Sunday.

“Arrangements have begun to be made in (the city of) Naqoura, where the UNIFIL (UN Interim Force in Lebanon) headquarters are, to receive the delegations of the two countries to sign separately the agreement document and hand over a copy of it to the American side and a copy to the UN,” the source said.

“American mediator Amos Hochstein will come to Naqoura to attend the signing process.”

On Oct. 11, President Michel Aoun announced Beirut’s approval of the US demarcation proposal, saying the agreement would “lift Lebanon from the abyss in which it was plunged.”

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid described the agreement as “historic.”

The Lebanese and Israeli sides, through American mediation, engaged in indirect negotiations that lasted two years.


More than 100 Palestinians detained in West Bank since start of Ramadan, including women, children

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More than 100 Palestinians detained in West Bank since start of Ramadan, including women, children

  • Arrests by Israelis accompanied by extensive field interrogation

RAMALLAH: Israeli forces have detained more than 100 Palestinians from the West Bank since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, including women, children, and former prisoners, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society reported on Sunday.

The organization said the detentions coincided with Israel’s announcement of the intensification of such actions during Ramadan, with recent settler attacks providing cover for widespread detentions across most West Bank governorates, including Jerusalem. Many detainees from Jerusalem have been barred from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque.

A statement pointed out that arrests by Israelis are accompanied by extensive field interrogation which often targets all sections of Palestinian society.

Documented violations accompanying detentions include severe beatings, organized terror campaigns against detainees and their families, destruction and looting of homes, confiscation of vehicles, money and gold, demolition of family homes, use of family members as hostages, employment of prisoners as human shields, and extrajudicial executions.

The society stressed that Israel exploits detention campaigns to expand settlement activity in the West Bank, with settlers serving as a key tool to impose a new reality.

The Palestinian Detainees Affairs Commission has revealed harrowing details of the abuses faced by Palestinian prisoner Mohammed Wajih Mahamid from Jenin during his incarceration in Israeli prisons.

The commission said that on Nov. 15, 2023, Mahamid was severely beaten on his right knee with a baton used by prison guards, causing a serious injury that left him unable to walk without crutches.

He was beaten again on the same knee on March 29, 2025, resulting in severe swelling which was later confirmed to be a fracture. Despite his condition, the prison authorities only provided painkillers and refused to transfer him to hospital, maintaining a policy of deliberate medical neglect.

The commission stressed that these abuses reflected the harsh reality faced by Palestinian detainees, who are deprived of basic human rights, medical treatment and care.