A dispute between the Sharaf and al-Ammar families escalated into an armed clash Wednesday in the West Bekaa town of Mashghara, the National News Agency said.

The agency said the dispute was linked to previous tensions over cattle grazing and resulted in the death of H. Sharaf and A. Sharaf and the wounding of M. al-Ammar and his brother A. al-Ammar.

A woman carrying a toy pistol and a dozen activists broke into a Beirut bank branch on Wednesday, taking $13,000 from what the activists say were her trapped savings.

Sali Hafez, who herself is a known activist, told Al-Jadeed TV that she needed the money to fund her sister's cancer treatment. She said she had repeatedly visited the bank to ask for her money and was told she could only receive $200 a month in Lebanese pounds. Hafez said the toy pistol belonged to her nephew.

A parliament session over the state budget was postponed on Wednesday due to lack of quorum as it coincided with the 40th anniversary of former President Bashir Gemayel's assassination.

The majority of Christian MPs boycotted the session, while fifty eight MPs arrived at the Parliament, expressing discontent over the budget draft law.

Forty years after Christian militiamen massacred Palestinian refugees and Lebanese nationals in the country's Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, the horrors of the tragedy remain seared into survivors' memories.

Najib al-Khatib, whose father and 10 other family members were killed in the massacre, still remembers the stench of corpses.

Israel is keen to make a deal with Lebanon regarding the maritime border, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a meeting with U.N. diplomats in New York on Tuesday.

“The State of Israel is interested in progressing maritime border negotiations with Lebanon,” Gantz said. “In the end, there will be two gas rigs, one Israeli and one Lebanese. The question is whether we can reach this scenario without an unnecessary escalation as a result of Hezbollah threats,” he added, according to English-language remarks published by Israel’s Jerusalem Post.

President Michel Aoun on Tuesday stressed “the need to exert every effort to form a new government.”

He added, in a meeting with a delegation from the Economic Committees, that the alternative would be to “bolster the current government with six new state ministers who would be politicians.”

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will call for a presidential vote session before the end of President Michel Aoun’s term on October 31, MP Ali Hassan Khalil announced on Tuesday.

“Several sessions might be held,” Khalil added, following a meeting between Berri’s Development and Liberation bloc and a delegation from the Change bloc.

Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati on Tuesday stressed that he will “continue all the efforts aimed at forming the new government.”

“All those concerned must meanwhile support these efforts and refrain from continuing to put conditions and obstacles in a blatant attempt to achieve political gains whose timing is inappropriate and which cannot be accepted,” Mikati added.

President Michel Aoun has again hinted that he might not leave the presidential palace on October 31 should no new government be formed and should no new president be elected.

As pressure continues to mount on affected people in Lebanon and vulnerabilities continue to deepen day after day, the Humanitarian Coordinator a.i, Edouard Beigbeder, announced that the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund (LHF) has allocated US$8 million to meet urgent needs and enhance preparedness ahead of the fast-approaching winter, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Lebanon said.

"Vulnerable families in Lebanon are affected by insufficient access to water, unaffordable prices of basic commodities, limited access to life-saving services, thus taking desperate measures to survive, and we need to act now and avoid a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation," stated the Humanitarian Coordinator a.i.