A small plane crashed Thursday afternoon in the Keserwan town of Ghosta, leaving three people dead, in a rare such accident in the Mediterranean country.

Annahar newspaper said the jet fell in Ghosta’s Ain Waraqa area.

Saudi Arabia's deputy defense minister has discussed the Lebanese file with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and State Department officials during a low-key visit to Washington that tackled several regional issues.

The State Department said the prince, Khalid bin Salman, met senior State Department officials Victoria Nuland and Derek Chollet and that Blinken participated in only part of the meeting.

A number of protesters stormed a drug warehouse in Tripoli on Wednesday and found large quantities of medicines that are absent from pharmacies’ shelves.

The aforementioned medicines included antibiotics, fever reducers, and blood pressure and cough medications.

The assembly of gas station owners demonstrated on Wednesday during which they "the difficulties they are facing” warning that they might be “forced to sell our stocks and close.”

According to Rashad Msharrafiyeh, who spoke on behalf of the assembly, in a press conference, “the importing companies are unable to secure sufficient quantities,” and “have imposed on the stations to pay their bills in dollars.”

The U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea will travel alongside the French Ambassador to Lebanon Anne Grillo to Saudi Arabia for meetings with Saudi Arabian officials on July 8, 2021, the U.S. Embassy said on Wednesday.

“This visit follows U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s trilateral meeting on Lebanon with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud on June 29 in Matera, Italy on the sidelines of the G-20 conference,” the Embassy added in a statement.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi declared Wednesday, after his meeting with President Michel Aoun in Baabda, that “no one is as concerned with Lebanon as the President” and called on PM-designate Saad Hariri to "accelerate the government formation.”

Al-Rahi assured that the Pope's speech is “a guide for us, heads of churches,” and that “we will start working within our ecclesiastical framework to implement his recommendations.”

A representative from the United States Central Command, in coordination with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, is conducting a visit to review security upgrades to border security systems installed at Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) land and maritime border regiments, the U.S. Embassy said on Tuesday.

The two-week visit, which concludes on July 9, includes engagements with regimental commanders and the head of the LAF Navy to ensure the communications and surveillance systems integrate successfully into the operational framework at LAF headquarters, the Embassy added in a statement.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has offered Lebanon humanitarian aid due to the difficult economic conditions the country is going through, Israeli media reports said.

Gantz officially made this offer through the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on Tuesday.

Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani arrived in Lebanon Tuesday on a one-day official visit.

He was welcomed at the airport by caretaker Deputy PM and Defense and Foreign Minister Zeina Akar and Qatari Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammed Hassan al-Jaber.

Will the upcoming days be decisive regarding the long-awaited formation of the new government, as Hizbullah chief, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said in his televised speech on Monday? Free Patriotic Movement chief Jebran Bassil has shown flexibility, but sources expect PM-designate Saad Hariri to apologize.

In remarks to al-Akhbar newspaper published on Tuesday, informed sources linked Nasrallah’s words about “decisive days” to a “new development”: the flexibility that Bassil has shown regarding Hariri’s demand that his government obtain a “prior vote of confidence” from the FPM, which would facilitate the government formation.