Lebanon: Theft Gangs on Beirut Airport Road Terrify Passers-by

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)
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Lebanon: Theft Gangs on Beirut Airport Road Terrify Passers-by

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi during a visit to Beirut airport on Wednesday (National News Agency)

Lebanon’s airport road that links the country’s Rafik Hariri International Airport to the capital Beirut and to other areas has turned into a haven for outlaws and armed theft gangs leaving victims petrified and sometimes dead.
Months after security chaos, Lebanon’s security forces decided to take action and succeeded at arresting several members of these gangs mainly of Lebanese and Syrian nationalities. The arrests took place in the southern suburbs of Beirut and in the Bekaa region.
Sources following up closely on the file, said the “belated security awakening” came after a “green light” given by the Hezbollah party who lifted the cover off these gangs.
“These gangs roam freely in Hezbollah’s security square (in the southern suburbs of Beirut). They have turned into a burden on the party. They tend to run into the southern suburbs for shelter each time they carry out a theft”, the sources said.
They tend to execute their crimes either late at night or at dawn fishing for people coming or heading to the airport, according to the sources.
A security source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the armed gangs tend to carefully choose the timing when road traffic is low, taking strategic positions that make their escape an easy one.
He said: “More than thirty incidents have been reported since the beginning of the year”. The gangs “have exploited the absence of security presence on the airport road. Security forces do not patrol that area 24/7 like they used to before the economic crisis”.
Meanwhile, security and strategic expert, Naji Malaeb, told Asharq Al-Awsat that what is happening on the airport road is the result of self-imposed security that some people advocate for in Lebanon.
He said the southern suburbs area has turned into a haven for outlaws when Hezbollah turned it into a security zone outside the state’s control.
In March, a theft incident left a taxi driver dead inside the airport tunnel. Also, video footage circulating on social media recently showed two men, one of them carrying a rifle, on a motorbike chasing a man on a motorcycle.
A source close to Hezbollah denied claims that the party is providing shelter for those. He said the party provides the security forces with information about gangs.



Video Shows Last Moments for Slain Gaza Aid Workers, Red Crescent Says

This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP
This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP
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Video Shows Last Moments for Slain Gaza Aid Workers, Red Crescent Says

This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP
This image grab from a handout video reportedly recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers - AFP

A video recovered from the cellphone of an aid worker killed in Gaza alongside other rescuers shows their final moments, according to the Palestine Red Crescent, with clearly marked ambulances and emergency lights flashing as heavy gunfire erupts.

The aid worker was among 15 humanitarian personnel who were killed on March 23 in an attack by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

The Israeli military has said its soldiers "did not randomly attack" any ambulances, insisting they fired on "terrorists" approaching them in "suspicious vehicles".

Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said that troops opened fire on vehicles that had no prior clearance from Israeli authorities and had their lights off, AFP reported.

But the video released by PRCS on Saturday appears to contradict the Israeli military's claims, showing ambulances travelling with their headlights and emergency lights clearly flashing.

The six minute and 42 second video, apparently filmed from inside a moving vehicle, captures a red firetruck and ambulances driving through the night.

The vehicles stop beside another on the roadside, and two uniformed men exit. Moments later, intense gunfire erupts.

In the video, the voices of two medics are heard -- one saying, "the vehicle, the vehicle," and another responding: "It seems to be an accident."

Seconds later, a volley of gunfire breaks out, and the screen goes black.

PRCS said it had found the video on the phone of Rifat Radwan, one of the deceased aid workers.

"This video unequivocally refutes the occupation's claims that Israeli forces did not randomly target ambulances, and that some vehicles had approached suspiciously without lights or emergency markings," PRCS said in a statement.

"The footage exposes the truth and dismantles this false narrative."

Those killed included eight PRCS staff, six members of the Gaza civil defence agency and one employee of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA.

Their bodies were found buried near Rafah in what the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) described as a mass grave.

- Fear and prayers -

OCHA has said that the first team was targeted by Israeli forces at dawn on that day. In the hours that followed, additional rescue and aid teams searching for their colleagues were also struck in a series of successive attacks.

According to the PRCS, the convoy had been dispatched in response to emergency calls from civilians trapped under bombardment in Rafah.

In the video, a medic recording the scene can be heard reciting the Islamic declaration of faith, the shahada, which Muslims traditionally say in the face of death.

"There is no God but God, Mohammed is his messenger," he says repeatedly, his voice trembling with fear as intense gunfire continues in the background.

He is also heard saying: "Forgive me mother because I chose this way, the way of helping people."

He then says, "accept my martyrdom, God, and forgive me." Just before the footage ends, he is heard saying, "The Jews are coming, the Jews are coming," referring to Israeli soldiers.

The deaths of the aid workers has sparked international condemnation.

Jonathan Whittall, the head of OCHA in the Palestinian territories, said the bodies of the humanitarian workers were "in their uniforms, still wearing gloves" when they were found.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, condemned the attack, raising concerns over possible "war crimes" by the Israeli military.

"I am appalled by the recent killings of 15 medical personnel and humanitarian aid workers, which raise further concerns over the commission of war crimes by the Israeli military," Volker Turk told the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Turk called for an "independent, prompt and thorough investigation" into the attack.

An Israeli military official said the bodies had been covered "in sand and cloth" to avoid damage until coordination with international organizations could be arranged for their retrieval.

The military said it was investigating the attack.