‘Soldiers of God’ Group Derails Drag Show in Lebanon

A photo circulating on social media depicting members of 'Soldiers of God' movement.
A photo circulating on social media depicting members of 'Soldiers of God' movement.
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‘Soldiers of God’ Group Derails Drag Show in Lebanon

A photo circulating on social media depicting members of 'Soldiers of God' movement.
A photo circulating on social media depicting members of 'Soldiers of God' movement.

A drag show in the Lebanese capital Beirut was cut short late on Wednesday by an angry crowd of conservative Christians screaming homophobic chants.

The show was hosted at a bar in the Beirut neighborhood of Mar Mikhael.

Footage posted online from outside the same venue on Wednesday showed men identifying themselves as the "Soldiers of God," an anti-LGBT Christian movement in Lebanon.

They said that the venue is known to be a safe space for LGPT individuals.

Videos of the event show members of the Soldiers of God trapping people inside the bar while shouting that they were "disgusted" at the event.

It was the latest episode showing rising hate speech against Lebanon's LGBT community, including from conservatives with various religious backgrounds.

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, head of the armed group Hezbollah, has said homosexuality posed an "imminent danger" to Lebanon and should be "confronted".

“The Soldiers of God” movement is a Christian extremist group in Lebanon that started to surface recently. Its members wear black shirts and claim to be protectors of the Christian areas in Lebanon.

Outgoing Minister of Culture, Mohammad Wissam Mortada commented on the incident and said that the security forces should have taken the matter in their own hands instead of leaving it to irregular sides to handle.

“The security forces should have closed down the bar if it was proven that it was running a play encouraging anomaly” he said in remarks on X platform, previously Twitter.

Other MPs and politicians denounced the assault, rejecting any form of violence and hate speeches.



94 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Including 45 People Waiting for Aid

A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
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94 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Including 45 People Waiting for Aid

A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
A Palestinian inspects the damage at a school sheltering displaced people, following an overnight Israeli airstrike, in Gaza City, July 3, 2025. REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza overnight, including 45 while attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid, hospitals and the Health Ministry said Thursday.

Israel’s military did not have immediate comment on the strikes, The Associated Press reported.

Five people were killed while outside sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip’s population, while 40 others were killed waiting for aid trucks in other locations across the Gaza Strip.

Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes that pounded the Strip Wednesday night and Thursday morning, including 15 people killed in strikes that hit tents in the sprawling Muwasi zone, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and a strike on a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has passed 57,000, including 223 missing people who have been declared dead. The ministry doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants in its death count but says that more than half of the dead are women and children.

The deaths come as Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible ceasefire that would end the 21-month war.

Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. But Hamas’ response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting.

The Israeli military blames Hamas for the civilian casualties because it operates from populated areas. The military said it targeted Hamas members and rocket launchers in northern Gaza that launched rockets towards Israel on Wednesday.

The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages.

The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting. More than 90% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of people hungry.