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Western Diplomats Show Interest in Lebanon Protests

General Security forces remove tents from Sassine Square in Ashrafieh, and reopened the road to traffic. (NNA)
General Security forces remove tents from Sassine Square in Ashrafieh, and reopened the road to traffic. (NNA)
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Western Diplomats Show Interest in Lebanon Protests

General Security forces remove tents from Sassine Square in Ashrafieh, and reopened the road to traffic. (NNA)
General Security forces remove tents from Sassine Square in Ashrafieh, and reopened the road to traffic. (NNA)

Western diplomats praised on Tuesday the recent decision of the popular protests in Lebanon to move from blocking roads across the country to organizing sit-ins in front of public and private companies accused of corruption.

On Tuesday, protesters opened roads they had blocked for the past two weeks and instead, decided to gather in front of the public and private establishments, including the Central Bank in Nabatiyeh and several bank branches, by preventing employees from entering the buildings.

They also plan to stage protests on Wednesday in front of the two mobile operators MTC Touch and Alfa, the TVA building in Beirut, the Beirut Justice Palace and the Central Bank in Hamra.

On Tuesday, a dispute erupted at the Water Authority of North Lebanon among the employees and demonstrators who demanded the closure of the department.

The diplomats said they already informed their governments that Lebanese authorities have used force against Lebanese protesters in Jal el-Dib and Zouk (north of Beirut) by pushing protesters and preventing them to close the roads.

For the first time on Tuesday, the Lebanese army removed protester tents in several areas, reopening the roads to traffic.

A European ambassador asked a Lebanese official why authorities used force in Jal el-Dib and Zouk and not in the Ring Bridge, Martyrs’ Square and Riyad al-Solh in Beirut.

He remarked however that despite these measures, the protesters may again take to the streets should President Michel Aoun fail to call for binding parliamentary consultations to name a new prime minister.

The ambassador admitted that the popular movement has no central leadership to control its steps.

Saad Hariri resigned as premier last week, yielding to the protests.

Unprecedented cross-sectarian demonstrations have gripped Lebanon since October 17, demanding a complete overhaul of a political system deemed inefficient and corrupt.

Protesters have called for an end to Aoun's tenure, as well as drastic change to a political system dominated by the same figures and families since the end of the 1975-90 civil war.

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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.