The head of the Christian Kataeb Party warned Thursday that Lebanon has reached “the point of no return” after Christian villagers clashed with members of Hezbollah in a village south of Beirut on Wednesday night.
A member of Hezbollah identified as Ahmad Ali Kassas and a Christian resident of the village of Kahaleh identified as Fadi Bejjani were killed in clashes that erupted after a truck belonging to Hezbollah overturned in the village. The Lebanese Army stated on Thursday that the truck was carrying ammunition and that army forces arrived at the scene after the clashes erupted to calm the situation and transport the munitions to a military center.
Hezbollah claimed that after the truck overturned, members of “militias present in the area” began throwing stones and firing at the truck, with the Hezbollah members responding with shooting.
Kassas’s funeral took place on Thursday afternoon. Bejjani’s funeral is set to take place on Friday afternoon.
The incident, the deadliest clash between Hezbollah and Christians since clashes in Tayouneh area of Beirut in 2021, has raised tensions between Hezbollah and Christian groups in Lebanon.
Supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah carry the coffin of Ahmed Qassas, who died during exchange of fire at the area where a truck was overturned the previous night in the town of Kahaleh, during his funeral, in Beirut suburbs, Lebanon August 10, 2023. (credit: MOHAMED AZAKIR/REUTERS)“Lebanon is in a dangerous situation, and we cannot continue like this,” said Samy Gemayel, the head of the Kataeb Party, on Thursday.
“We know where it led us in the past,” added Gemayel in an apparent reference to the Lebanese Civil War. From 1975-1990, Lebanon was wracked by a civil war between a number of Christian, Shi’ite, Sunni, and Palestinian militias. The Kataeb Party played a central role in the civil war as part of the Lebanese Forces, which was opposed to Shi’ite movements and Palestinian movements in the country.
“We know the value and difficulty of war, and this is what we warn against, and the group that practices these practices must know that the Lebanese are not easy prey, but rather a resistant people who do not accept living without freedom and dignity and have struggled for thousands of years to preserve dignity and will not surrender,” warned Gemayel on Thursday.
“What if the truck had contained explosives and the incident led to a huge explosion and hundreds of people were killed? We are not prepared to coexist with an armed militia in Lebanon, and this will be followed by practical steps, opposition meetings, and decisions,” stressed Gemayel.
“We call on the opposition to move from the traditional method of political action to another existential, essential entity. Lebanon is required to take exceptional decisions.”
Gemayel addressed members of his party, stating “Know that your party has moved to a new stage, and starting today our struggle is existential and is no longer a traditional political struggle.”
The Free Patriotic Movement, led by Gebran Bassil, warned on Thursday that the incident in Kahaleh is a “warning bell for the imminent danger of a decomposing state and a convulsing society” and was caused by “shortcomings from Hezbollah or the security forces.”
The movement stressed that it rejected any attempt to exploit the situation to cause “sedition,” stressing that “sedition is tantamount to mass suicide.”
While the Free Patriotic Movement has been allied with the Hezbollah movement, the two groups have grown distant amid the political, economic, and societal crisis in Lebanon, with the Free Patriotic Movement recently joining a group of Christian parties in supporting a presidential candidate opposed to the candidate supported by Hezbollah.
Former Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman, a Maronite Christian, stated that Hezbollah “does not consider the army and the people (represented by the state with its president and government) as equal to it, but it asks them to support its steps and decisions without even having to coordinate with them before acting.”
Hezbollah accuses Christians of helping Israel
Hezbollah-affiliated politicians and journalists have accused the Christians involved in the clashes in Kahaleh of helping Israel, whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Hezbollah-affiliated reporter Ali Shoeib accused the residents of the village of attacking the truck “with the aim of forcibly revealing its contents” and linked the incident to a recent visit by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to the Lebanese border.
The Hezbollah-linked Al-Mayadeen TV published an article stating that “an armed group affiliated with a well-known political party” was behind the clashes in Kahaleh, and accused Lebanese groups opposed to Hezbollah of “playing on a chord that may lead to igniting a civil war.”
An article on the Hezbollah-affiliated Al-Manar TV stated that Hezbollah was “handing matters over to the army to avoid any escalation, despite the fall of a martyr by treacherous bullets that entered the line of escalation and exploitation.”
Christian Lebanese Forces official killed in southern Lebanon
Lebanese media also reported on Wednesday that an investigation had been opened into the death of Elias al-Hasrouni, a former coordinator for the Christian Lebanese Forces party in Ain Ebel in southern Lebanon, just a few miles from the border with Israel.
While al-Hasrouni’s death was originally believed to be an accident, the Lebanese Forces and Kataeb party claimed that he had been kidnapped and murdered, according to the Lebanese L’Orient Le-Jour newspaper. The decision to investigate the death was opened due to newfound CCTV footage and other evidence, according to the report.
The mayor of the town and the head of the Lebanese Forces have both called on Lebanese security forces to work quickly to identify the perpetrators of the suspected attack, with the head of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, warning of the potential consequences of the attack.
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