Lebanese riot police fired tear gas at protesters in central Beirut on Saturday, after a planned anti-government demonstration quickly degenerated into rioting and stone-throwing confrontations between opposing camps.

A few thousand demonstrators had gathered in Martyrs' Square hoping to reboot nationwide protests that began late last year amid an unprecedented economic and financial crisis. But tensions and divisions among protesters over the goals of the demonstration quickly became apparent as groups of protesters faced off, with the army standing between them.

Hundreds of protesters from the south to the north of Lebanon joined the main demo in Martyr’s Square in Beirut on Saturday against the country’s political elite, corruption and a crumbling economy as the result of decades of mismanagement.

Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International airport is likely going to resume its operations starting "July 1 at the most,” VDL (93.3) radio station said on Saturday.

Logistical preparations began a day earlier for demonstrations taking place Saturday, in which the Kataeb party and supporters of former Minister of Justice Ashraf Rifi and other protesters demanded early parliamentary elections.

A fierce brawl broke out in Beirut’s Abou Shaker Square in Tariq el-Jadideh among knife wielding groups, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

A group of members and volunteers of the Civil Defense continue to block the road near the Interior Ministry in Beirut since Thursday, demanding that the Cabinet recruits them as paid full-time jobs, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

A convoy of Israeli warplanes crossed Lebanon’s airspace flying at a low altitude over Jbeil, Keserwan and Metn late on Thursday, the National News Agency said.

The Cabinet on Thursday extended the so-called state of general mobilization over coronavirus to July 5, as President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab hit back at what they called political “campaigns” against the government.

Lebanon recorded a significant uptick of 50 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, as Health Minister Hamad Hasan said a woman repatriated from abroad has infected 42 people in the Iqlim al-Kharroub town of Barja.

Lebanon has provided temporary shelter for 35 homeless Ethiopian domestic workers who had camped outside their consulate after being abandoned by employers hit by the country's worsening economic crisis, the labor ministry said Thursday.