Lebanon’s Prisoners Call For General Amnesty to Prevent Catastrophe

Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)
Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)
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Lebanon’s Prisoners Call For General Amnesty to Prevent Catastrophe

Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)
Security forces raided Lebanon's notorious Roumieh prison, seen here in April 2006, after discovering that inmates were linked to a deadly bomb attack last week, security services said (AFP Photo/Ramzi Haidar)

Inmates of Lebanon's Roumieh prison (Northeast of Beirut) called on the concerned authorities to approve the General Amnesty Law, to avoid a health catastrophe that may be caused by the spread of the Corona virus among them.

In a statement on Sunday, the prisoners said that a large number of them suffered from “chronic pulmonary diseases and diabetes”, adding that there was no thermometer in prison, and the pharmacy did not provide masks or sterilizers.

They warned that they would begin a hunger strike in the coming days, if their demands were not met.

Under the same slogan, a number of families of prisoners gathered on the road leading to the Presidential Palace in Baabda, in parallel with the holding of the cabinet session, calling on President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Hassan Diab for general amnesty for their children, for fear of the spread of the Corona virus in prisons in all regions.

In this regard, the head of the Human Rights Committee, MP Michel Moussa, called for “the distribution of prisoners in vacant government buildings.”



Israeli Airstrike Kills Several Hezbollah Members in South Lebanon

Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.  (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
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Israeli Airstrike Kills Several Hezbollah Members in South Lebanon

Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters.  (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)
Smoke billows from a site targeted by Israeli shelling in the southern Lebanese village of Boustane near the border with Israel on July 18, 2024, amid ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Kawnat HAJU / AFP)

An Israeli airstrike late Thursday killed members of Hezbollah's elite Radwan Force at a home in southern Lebanon, state media and a Hezbollah official said.
A Hezbollah official said the strike killed several members of the secretive Radwan Force, which operates along the border. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, gave no further details or the names of the members killed.
The airstrike on the village of Jmaijmeh also wounded several people and ambulances rushed to the area, state-run National News Agency said. The agency did not immediately report deaths.
Earlier in the day, two separate drone strikes in south Lebanon and another in the eastern Bekaa Valley killed a Hezbollah member and an official of al-Jamaa al-Islamiya.

The Israeli military said it had killed a Radwan Force operations unit commander it named as Ali Jaafar Maatouk, along with another commander responsible for Radwan Force operations in the Hajir region. It said additional Radwan Force fighters were also killed in the strike.

Maatouk was killed in one of several strikes on the neighboring border villages of Safad El Battikh and Jmaijmeh, sources said. Eighteen wounded were taken to nearby Tebnine government hospital, its director Mohammed Hamadi told Reuters.