Is there a legal boat speed limit near the Lebanese shore?

We cannot cite a published Lebanese numeric limit. What is binding is the COLREG duty of safe speed, which is situational rather than a fixed number. The 5 knot / 300 m figure is French practice and a campaign ask.

Who marks swimming zones on a Lebanese beach?

In practice, whoever runs the beach — which is why marking is uneven from bay to bay. The campaign asks for a single national standard so a swimmer sees the same buoy pattern in Tripoli and in Tyre.

Reference

Boats near swimmers

Speed, corridors and buoyage

Most near-shore collisions are not mysteries. A boat entering or leaving the beach crosses the same water people swim in, with no marked line between them. This page sets out the duties that already bind every skipper, and the marked-corridor standard the campaign wants written into Lebanese rules.

Safe speed and lookout are not optional

International standard

COLREG Rules 5 and 6 require a proper lookout by sight and hearing at all times, and a speed at which the vessel can stop within a distance appropriate to the circumstances. Near a beach the relevant circumstances are swimmers, glare, wave chop that hides a head, and a hull that lifts its bow when it planes and blinds the helm.

IALA Region A buoyage — what the colours mean

International standard

Lebanon is in IALA Region A. Entering a channel from seaward, port-hand marks are red and starboard-hand marks are green; leaving, the reverse. A swimming area marked with buoys is not a suggestion — it is the line that tells a skipper where people are. A corridor with only one side marked is not a corridor.

The campaign standard: 300 m band, 30 m corridors

Campaign proposal

Safe Sea Lebanon proposes: 5 knots maximum inside 300 m of the shore; swimming zones marked with buoys no more than 50 m apart; and boat access only through corridors at least 30 m wide, reaching past the 300 m band so vessels accelerate only in open water, with red and green gate marks at the seaward end. These are the campaign's own figures. Every zoning plan published on this site is checked against them, and any plan that passes is still only a proposal to the maritime regulator.

Sources

Safe speed and lookout — COLREGs Rules 5 and 6

The international collision regulations require a proper lookout at all times and a safe speed for the visibility, traffic and proximity of navigational hazards — which includes people in the water.

IMO — Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG)

Lateral marks — IALA Maritime Buoyage System (Region A)

Lebanon lies in IALA Region A: entering a channel from seaward, port-hand marks are red and starboard-hand marks are green. Every corridor gate in a plan must carry both.

IALA — Maritime Buoyage System (IALA-AISM)

Comparative practice — 300 m shore band at 5 knots (France)

French coastal rules cap all craft at 5 knots inside the 300 m shore band. The campaign uses the same figure as a reference point for Lebanon; it is comparative practice, not Lebanese law.

Légifrance — Code des transports, navigation dans la bande littorale des 300 mètres

Lebanese baseline — Decree 4810/1966

The shore and the sea up to the highest winter wave line are public maritime domain. Public access and swimming are the baseline right any corridor must protect.

Decree 4810/1966 — Lebanese public maritime domain

Questions

Is there a legal boat speed limit near the Lebanese shore?: We cannot cite a published Lebanese numeric limit. What is binding is the COLREG duty of safe speed, which is situational rather than a fixed number. The 5 knot / 300 m figure is French practice and a campaign ask.
Who marks swimming zones on a Lebanese beach?: In practice, whoever runs the beach — which is why marking is uneven from bay to bay. The campaign asks for a single national standard so a swimmer sees the same buoy pattern in Tripoli and in Tyre.