Hundreds of Lebanese rallied outside the central bank in Beirut and elsewhere in the country on Friday, a day after the prime minister said he will seek a rescue program from the International Monetary Fund to deal with a spiraling economic and financial crisis.

The protesters criticized the government's handling of the unprecedented crisis that saw the local currency crash, devastate their savings and send prices and inflation soaring. Scuffles broke out outside a private bank and troops were seen beating and pulling away at least one protester.

Lebanon signed a request for financial help from the International Monetary Fund on Friday, initiating a long process the government hopes will ease the country’s worst post-war economic crisis.

The Health Ministry announced four new cases of coronavirus in Lebanon, raising the total number of people who retracted the disease to 729.

Explosions rocked a Syrian military base housing a weapons Hizbullah warehouse Friday in the country's central Homs province, and a local official said the cause was not immediately clear.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the Syria war, said an Israeli rocket attack was suspected. It said the weapons warehouse, south of the city of Homs, is for Lebanon's Iran-backed Hizbullah group, which has backed Syria's armed forces in the nine-year civil war.

Iran has slammed Germany's ban on the activities of Lebanon's Hizbullah movement on its soil, saying it would face consequences for its decision to give in to Israeli and US pressure.

The U.S. State Department on Friday “applauded” Germany’s ban on the activities of Hizbullah on its soil, considering that obstructing its activities would diminish Iran’s influence in the region.

Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni described the government’s economic rescue plan approved on Thursday as “historic,” saying it paves the way for negotiations with the IMF and support from donor countries to help Lebanon’s ailing economy, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday

Lebanon is mired in its worst economic and financial crisis since the end of its 1975-1990 civil war, exacerbated by the eruption in October 2019 of angry popular protests.

President Michel Aoun on Thursday invited the heads of parliamentary blocs to a “national meeting” in Baabda on Wednesday to discuss “the government's reform program,” the Presidency said.

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat on Thursday warned against attacks on the army, following violent confrontations between protesters and the military in recent days.