Israel is preparing to activate an offshore gas field partly disputed by Lebanon, aiming to boost energy exports to Europe but risking further tensions with its northern neighbor.

Israel and Lebanon, still technically at war, have engaged in on-off U.S. mediated talks since 2020 to delineate their Mediterranean border, which could allow both parties to boost offshore natural gas exploration.

A U.S. court has ordered Hezbollah to pay millions of dollars in damages to a group of Americans who sued saying they were wounded by the group's rockets during the 2006 war with Israel.

The case was brought under the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act and alleged that Hezbollah caused the plaintiffs physical and emotional injury and damaged their property. The judge ordered Hezbollah to pay damages of $111 million to the plaintiffs.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea met Tuesday with Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari in Maarab.

Bukhari had met on Monday with Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat.

Cyprus has assisted in rescue of a small wooden boat crammed with more than 300 migrants that was floating adrift 203 kilometers west of the island nation, a Cypriot official said Tuesday.

Cyprus Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) Commander Andreas Charalambides told the Associated Press that the captain of the 18-meter (60 foot) boat sent out a distress call Monday afternoon after experiencing engine trouble.

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet with Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Mikati had on Monday took part in the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London before leaving for the United States where he will lead Lebanon’s delegation to the works of the U.N. General Assembly.

Israel's prime minister has vowed to begin production at a contested Mediterranean natural gas field "as soon as it is possible," threatening to raise tensions with Lebanon's Hezbollah.

Yair Lapid's announcement in a statement from his office came at a sensitive time in long-running efforts by a U.S. mediator to resolve a dispute over the countries' maritime border. U.S. officials have said they are making progress, but need more time to reach a solution.

In a war-scarred Beirut heritage house turned museum, archives of Lebanon's troubled past fuse with artistic depictions of its grim present to portray a country seemingly in perpetual turmoil.

Newspaper clippings, film negatives and diary entries from the years before Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war tell a story of government corruption, public sector strikes and student protests.

Caretaker Prime Minister and PM-designate Najib Mikati on Monday took part in the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in London.

Mikati was accompanied by his wife.

As the deadline for Lebanon’s presidential vote nears, the domestic haggling is being accompanied by European and Arab meetings, media reports said on Monday.

“A meeting has been held in Paris between French presidential advisor Patrick Durrell, French General Directorate for External Security head Bernard Émié, French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo, Saudi Royal Court advisor Nizar al-Aloula, a senior Saudi security official and Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid Bukhari,” al-Liwaa newspaper reported.

President Michel Aoun announced Monday that “the negotiations to demarcate the southern maritime border have become in their final stages, in a manner that guarantees Lebanon’s rights to gas and oil exploration in the specified fields in its Exclusive Economic Zone.”

Aoun voiced his remarks in a meeting in Baabda with U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Joanna Wronecka.