Lebanese Security Forces Turn Nejmeh Square into a Fortress

Lebanese men pass in front of a coffee shop that was smashed by anti-government protesters, during a protest against the new government, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese men pass in front of a coffee shop that was smashed by anti-government protesters, during a protest against the new government, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
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Lebanese Security Forces Turn Nejmeh Square into a Fortress

Lebanese men pass in front of a coffee shop that was smashed by anti-government protesters, during a protest against the new government, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Lebanese men pass in front of a coffee shop that was smashed by anti-government protesters, during a protest against the new government, in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Downtown Beirut has been transformed into a construction site, with workers putting iron shields on the facades of upscale shops after being damaged by stone-throwing protesters.

Confrontations between security forces and the protesters in the vicinity of the parliament compelled owners to protect their stores with armor panels, especially that customers are totally abstaining from visiting the shops, as one owner said.

Tony, who owns a store that sells mobile phones and other electronic devices, says that his shop's windows were shattered two days ago. However, this did not prevent him from continuing to work normally, staying in his shop until the evening.

“I close up and flee when the violence starts and the situation intensifies. People have the right to demand their rights, and this right must be preserved. However, what is happening is down purely to their hatred; they did not steal anything, content with just destroying.”

An employee at a clothing store nearby says that “downtown Beirut has become a frontline. The demonstrators did not leave a facade, tree, or anything else undamaged. We do not know how long we can continue, or when they will dismiss us from our jobs. We open our doors only to close them.”

He adds “The government will not change anything. The country is done. The corner that leads to Banks Street has been replaced ... with a huge new black gate that opens or closes depending on the orders of the security forces stationed inside it.”

“Only those who are given permission can enter the street, whether on foot or in cars. The street has become a huge barracks, occupied by dozens of trucks and hundreds of internal security forces and riot squads.

The security forces have also isolated themselves behind barricades, thereby transforming Nejmeh Square into an impenetrable fortress.

A journalist told Asharq Al-Awsat that his “shift has been starting at four in the afternoon and continuing till as late as 3 am since the protest movement started. The scene has changed a lot from what it was like in the beginning. In the past, riots were associated with young people coming from the Khandaq al-Ghamiq. Today, the majority of them come from Akkar, as their accent indicates.”

He adds: “It is not easy for me to watch my city being destroyed; I feel an urge to throw my camera aside and defend my city. The city that Rafik Hariri built after the civil war and was martyred in is under the most violent attacks these days. What will they gain from uprooting trees and throwing at the security forces?”

However, one of the protesters at Martyrs' Square refuses to describe the angry demonstrators as intrusive. He tells Asharq Al-Awsat that the authorities are responsible for everything that is happening.

“What they stole over all these years amounts to much more than the little glass and stone that was uprooted. We will not stop until this regime falls,” he says.



Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
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Gazans’ Daily Struggle for Water After Deadly Israeli Strike

 Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians wait for donated food at a community kitchen in Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, July 14, 2025. (AP)

The al-Manasra family rarely get enough water for both drinking and washing after their daily trudge to a Gaza distribution point like the one where eight people were killed on Sunday in a strike that Israel's military said had missed its target.

Living in a tent camp by the ruins of a smashed concrete building in Gaza City, the family say their children are already suffering from diarrhea and skin maladies and from the lack of clean water, and they fear worse to come.

"There's no water, our children have been infected with scabies, there are no hospitals to go to and no medications," said Akram Manasra, 51.

He had set off on Monday for a local water tap with three of his daughters, each of them carrying two heavy plastic containers in Gaza's blazing summer heat, but they only managed to fill two - barely enough for the family of 10.

Gaza's lack of clean water after 21 months of war and four months of Israeli blockade is already having "devastating impacts on public health" the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA said in a report this month.

For people queuing at a water distribution point on Sunday it was fatal. A missile that Israel said had targeted fighters but malfunctioned hit a queue of people waiting to collect water at the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Israel's blockade of fuel along with the difficulty in accessing wells and desalination plants in zones controlled by the Israeli military is severely constraining water, sanitation and hygiene services according to OCHA.

Fuel shortages have also hit waste and sewage services, risking more contamination of the tiny, crowded territory's dwindling water supply, and diseases causing diarrhea and jaundice are spreading among people crammed into shelters and weakened by hunger.

"If electricity was allowed to desalination plants the problem of a lethal lack of water, which is what's becoming the situation now in Gaza, would be changed within 24 hours," said James Elder, the spokesperson for the UN's children's agency UNICEF.

"What possible reason can there be for denying of a legitimate amount of water that a family needs?" he added.

COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last week, an Israeli military official said that Israel was allowing sufficient fuel into Gaza but that its distribution around the enclave was not under Israel's purview.

THIRSTY AND DIRTY

For the Manasra family, like others in Gaza, the daily toil of finding water is exhausting and often fruitless.

Inside their tent the family tries to maintain hygiene by sweeping. But there is no water for proper cleaning and sometimes they are unable to wash dishes from their meager meals for several days at a time.

Manasra sat in the tent and showed how one of his young daughters had angry red marks across her back from what he said a doctor had told them was a skin infection caused by the lack of clean water.

They maintain a strict regimen of water use by priority.

After pouring their two containers of water from the distribution point into a broken plastic water butt by their tent, they use it to clean themselves from the tap, using their hands to spoon it over their heads and bodies.

Water that runs off into the basin underneath is then used for dishes and after that - now grey and dirty - for clothes.

"How is this going to be enough for 10 people? For the showering, washing, dish washing, and the washing of the covers. It's been three months; we haven't washed the covers, and the weather is hot," Manasra said.

His wife, Umm Khaled, sat washing clothes in a tiny puddle of water at the bottom of a bucket - all that was left after the more urgent requirements of drinking and cooking.

"My daughter was very sick from the heat rash and the scabies. I went to several doctors for her and they prescribed many medications. Two of my children yesterday, one had diarrhea and vomiting and the other had fever and infections from the dirty water," she said.