Lebanese-Israeli negotiations are returning to the forefront after about two months of stalemate through an expected round between 20 and 22 October in Tampa, Florida, at the headquarters of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) under U.S. sponsorship, while the date remains preliminary and has not been officially confirmed by the Lebanese side, and coincides with the approach of the Israeli elections. The round is expected to take on a military and technical character with security arrangements and verification and monitoring mechanisms; Lebanon may raise the prisoners file, while Israel places the weapons file and the deployment of the Lebanese state among its priorities. On the other hand, the south witnessed two Israeli strikes on Kfar Tibnit and Wadi al-Hujair, dawn artillery shelling targeting the outskirts of Haddatha and Braashit, and low-flying Israeli warplanes in southern airspace, amid warnings of a 'hot winter' extending from Tehran to Beirut, including the failure of the U.S.-Iranian negotiations round, leaks about a U.S. security meeting at Camp David, talk of military options against Iran, Israeli accusations that Hezbollah is smuggling weapons and reactivating activity in Nabatieh, and U.S. pressure on the Lebanese government.
Internally, the Lebanese Army carried out simultaneous security operations from Baalbek to Beirut, raiding sites for manufacturing and promoting drugs in the town of Iaat and the Sharawna area, seizing raw materials, equipment, machines and weapons, and arresting 7 people. The General Directorate of State Security also arrested two Syrians and dismantled a forgery and financial fraud network worth millions of dollars that tried to convince citizens they could transfer about 6 million U.S. dollars to Lebanon through illegal means, while the Information Branch in Tripoli arrested a young man suspected of harassing an Ethiopian girl in an elevator on Al-Mi'atain Street. Judicially, the general amnesty law and the challenge to it before the Constitutional Council remain a point of debate, with MP Ibrahim Mneimneh indicating that the file is in the hands of the judiciary and the Constitutional Council and that the law becomes effective if the legal deadline ends without a decision, and noting that he would have preferred a just and balanced amnesty law addressing primarily the case of the Islamist detainees, while judicial sources spoke of a senior judge pausing at the handover of 260 Syrian detainees to al-Sharaa, considering that releasing them immediately upon receipt, and without a Syrian commitment to completing their sentences in Syria, could later find cover in the amnesty law and they would be announced released after its issuance. Prime Minister Nawaf Salam received Central Bank Governor Karim Saeed to discuss financial and banking conditions, and head of the South Council Hashem Haidar, while Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri received Salam in Ain al-Tineh. Berri was reported to have been absent for about a week from his evening walk due to exhaustion, with his doctors asking him to rest, while President Joseph Aoun discussed with former MP Hadi Hobeich diplomatic tracks to reach the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanese territory and confine weapons to the Lebanese state, along with the electricity file and the Akkar coastal highway, and received from Customs Director General Grazia Qazi a report on customs achievements, amid a decisive week for the Lebanese University presidency between appointing a new president or leaving the position vacant.
Socially and economically, a report warned that about 100,000 children in Lebanon are at risk of remaining out of classrooms if war-damaged schools are not repaired, with 436 educational institutions counted as having been bombed, or 40% of the institutions covered by the assessment, and about half of public schools in the rest of the country turned into shelters after the displacement of 1.2 million people, including 500,000 school-age children, in a school year that is the seventh in a row amid interruptions. In Tripoli, Grand Mufti Abdul Latif Derian, during a meeting with Tripoli and North Mufti Sheikh Muhammad Tareq Imam and a number of MPs and figures, called for a unified vision to address the garbage crisis and poor services, holding the state, the Tripoli municipality and the union of municipalities responsible, and stressing the preservation of Muslim-Christian unity in Tripoli and the North. Deputy head of the Supreme Islamic Shiite Council Ali al-Khatib warned against attempts to stir sensitivities between the Amal Movement and Hezbollah through videos and social media content, describing Shiite unity of position as 'sacred' and linked to Lebanon's unity. The committee following up on judicial assistants also demanded that Salam and Justice Minister Adel Nassar redress successful candidates in employment competitions since 2014 and amend Decision No. 7 that limited appointments to 100 people, and MP Adeeb Abdel Massih called for making the file of the death of Bashar Ibrahim al-Ayoubi on 12 September, after 18 days from being shot in front of his home in Bersa - Koura district, a top security priority. Lebanon is considering keeping summer time year-round instead of delaying the clock at the end of October, with expert Bassem Al-Bawwab estimating support for the economy between 4% and 5% annually, while the weather remains unstable with a quick low pressure, rain and thunder especially in the north, and Tuesday being the most volatile, and traffic is dense from Louaizeh to Fayadieh.