Lebanese Mothers March against Ruling Class

Lebanese women hold placards as they protest against the country's political paralysis and deep economic crisis in Beirut on the eve of Mother's Day in the country. (AFP)
Lebanese women hold placards as they protest against the country's political paralysis and deep economic crisis in Beirut on the eve of Mother's Day in the country. (AFP)
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Lebanese Mothers March against Ruling Class

Lebanese women hold placards as they protest against the country's political paralysis and deep economic crisis in Beirut on the eve of Mother's Day in the country. (AFP)
Lebanese women hold placards as they protest against the country's political paralysis and deep economic crisis in Beirut on the eve of Mother's Day in the country. (AFP)

Around one hundred women demonstrated in crisis-hit Lebanon on Saturday on the eve of Mother's Day in the country, expressing outrage at the ruling class.

The mothers, some with their children, marched from an area once on Beirut's dividing line during the 1975-1990 civil war, to the city's port, which saw a catastrophic explosion last year -- blamed on official negligence -- that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands.

Chanting anti-government slogans, they held signs addressing the ruling class.

“You have stolen our money and our children's futures,” several placards read.

“The best gift would be your leaving,” read another.

Lebanon is battling its worst economic crisis in decades. The national currency has lost almost 90 percent of its value against the dollar on the black market and consumer prices have soared.

Some 55 percent of Lebanese now live below the poverty line, the United Nations says, and unemployment stood at 39.5 percent late last year.

The government resigned after the port explosion, but endless haggling between the main ruling parties has delayed the process of forming a new cabinet.

“They are all war criminals, warlords,” protester Nada Agha told AFP, referring to the fact that several politicians were militia leaders during the civil war.

“They have been dividing up the pie among themselves (for 30 years)... and have blown us up and stolen our money. We want them to leave!” she said.

Another demonstrator, Petra Saliba, in her fifties, said “no solution is possible while they are in power”.

“We want to destroy them as they have destroyed us.”



Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
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Gaza Civil Defense Says Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 29

A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer
A Palestinian girl, wounded in an Israeli strike that killed people, who gathered to collect water from a distribution point, according to medics, receives treatment at Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer

Gaza's civil defense agency said Israeli airstrikes on Sunday killed at least 29 Palestinians, including six children near a water distribution point.

The attacks came with apparent deadlock in a week of indirect talks in Qatar between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire in the territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that Gaza City was hit by several strikes overnight and in the early morning, killing eight, "including women and children" and wounding others.

An Israeli airstrike hit a family home near the Nuseirat refugee camp, south of Gaza City, resulting in "10 martyrs and several injured", Bassal said.

In central Gaza, six children were among eight people killed when a drone "hit a potable water distribution point in an area for displaced people" in the Nuseirat camp, he added.

Several other people were wounded, he said.

In the territory's south, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defense spokesman.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza, more than 21 months into the war triggered by Hamas's October 2023 attack.

On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 "Hamas terror targets" around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza's population of more than two million people have been displaced at least once during the war, which has created dire humanitarian conditions in the territory.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.