The early evening hours of Sunday, July 28, brought anticipation and waiting in Beirut and Lebanese regions over potential developments that might lead to an expanded Israeli targeting of Lebanon, in response to its accusations against "Hezbollah" for the missile that fell two days prior in the village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights. After an ordinary Sunday in Lebanese areas, it ended with the usual traffic congestion marking the close of the weekend in Beirut, from the western lane of the Jounieh highway connecting Jbeil and the north towards the eastern entrance of the capital, Beirut, to similar congestion on the western lane at the Lebanese Army checkpoint at the Madfoun bridge separating Mount Lebanon and the North Governorates, as well as at the airport bridge tunnels on the southern entrance to the capital from Khaldeh and Shweifat and the vicinity of Burj al-Barajneh.
After the holiday, attention returned to what was to come. The media office for caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati issued a statement indicating that he had conducted "a series of diplomatic and political contacts to follow up on the evolving emergency situations and the repeated Israeli threats against Lebanon." He emphasized during the calls that the solution lies in reaching a comprehensive ceasefire and the full implementation of UN resolution 1701, to break the cycle of violence that is futile and to avoid escalation that complicates the situation further and leads to undesirable consequences.
According to the statement, Mikati also conducted a series of calls with relevant ministers to keep up with the routine matters of their ministries. In a related context, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of "Middle East Airlines - Lebanese Airlines," Mohammed Al-Hout, confirmed in a phone call with "Al-Jadeed" that "the delay in flights arriving early in the morning at Beirut Airport until tomorrow (today) is due to our preference for not having a large number of planes at the airport simultaneously." Al-Hout mentioned that "there is no information about an attack targeting the airport, and there is no fear of that."
As usual, attention turned to the movement at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut, which experienced significant chaos after October 8, 2023, due to the national airline's implementation of flight reduction measures and its preference for keeping aircraft overnight outside Beirut airport. Recently, several European airlines, including German "Lufthansa" and "Swiss International Air Lines," followed suit, with the former reducing its night flights to Beirut and the latter suspending its flights, leading to the majority of flights to Europe and the American continent shifting to Turkish Airlines. Meanwhile, travel agency offices, according to calls made by Kuwait's "Al-Anbaa," did not register requests from travelers spending their annual vacations in Beirut for urgent departures.
