Report: The European Commission adopted a new equivalence decision certifying that COVID-19 certificates issued by Lebanon are equivalent to the EU Digital COVID Certificate.

First casualty announced: Hamza Shaheen succumbed to his wounds in last night's explosion in the Burj Al-Shamali Palestinian refugee camp.

Lebanese Security Forces busted an attempt to smuggle 4 million captagon (meth) pills to a Gulf state, the biggest market of captagon in MENA.

All importers are high ranking officials and Emirs.

The export destination is Saudi Arabia, but due to imports ban, the captagon pills were intended to pass through Syria, Jordan, and then Saudi Arabia.

The two cases have been confirmed. Additional 6 suspected cases under review. twitter.com/LebUpdate/sta…

Hebrew Media: IDF conducting a snap logistics drill this evening, during which movement of forces, transportation of weapons, and heavy military equipment will be involved. The drill will also be attended by thousands of reservists who will be called to their units.

Israel's nuclear arsenal made US non-proliferation commitments “ridiculous” (Foreign Policy, 19 ⁠Feb)

“Every U.S. president since Bill Clinton has, at Israeli insistence, signed a secret letter upon entering office” that forbids to mention Israel’s nuclear arsenal. It was not before 17 ⁠Feb that Joe Biden made the usual post-inauguration call to the Israeli PM, because apparently “Biden had not yet signed the letter”.

The decades-old hypocrisy included “pretending in 1979 that what was almost certainly an Israeli nuclear test in the South Indian Ocean, which was observed by a U.S. satellite, didn’t happen”. There is also non-public regulation “described in the U.S. Energy Department’s Classification Bulletin WPN-136 on Foreign Nuclear Capabilities—that threatens government employees with severe punishment if they acknowledge Israel has nuclear weapons”.

foreignpolicy.com/2021/02…

⋯ Israel's nuclear arsenal consists of between 80 and 400 warheads (Wikipedia):

• nuclear-tipped long-range ground-to-ground missiles (French design): Jericho II B, Jericho III...
• nuclear-capable aircraft (U.S. design)
• Dolphin-class submarines (German design) armed with nuclear-tipped long-range cruise missiles.

Personal travel between Syria and Lebanon has officially resumed after COVID-19-related closure.

A PCR test, not older than 96 hours or a vaccination certificate, is needed when crossing the border.

Hamas mourns its martyr, Hamza Ibrahim Shaheen (Abu Muhammad), who rose to the tragic explosion in the Burj Al-Shamali camp in southern Lebanon.

He was the only death that occurred that night.

⋯ A fight occured during the funeral, unclear over what.

Several injuries were hospitalized.

⋯ According to initial local reports, the clashes took place between Hamas and Fatah.

⋯ Mohammed Taha, from a Palestinian scout org, was killed in the clashes earlier.

⋯ Another video from the incident.

There are two deaths. The other casualty is reported to be from Al-Sahili family.