Christian political parties in Lebanon refused the summoning of any of the residents of the Kahaleh region to hear their testimonies about the incident of the Hezbollah ammunition truck that overturned in their town earlier this month.
The Army Intelligence had completed technical investigations, collected forensic evidence, and started listening to eyewitnesses.
A Hezbollah truck carrying ammunition overturned in the Christian-dominated area of Kahaleh last week, sparking clashes and tensions between the residents and Hezbollah members, leading to the death of two persons.
The Intelligence Directorate of the Lebanese Army has received a judicial request from the Public Prosecution to investigate the incident, collect evidence and question witnesses.
Security sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the hearing requests were sent two days ago and included all the parties, pointing out that Hezbollah responded and sent the truck’s protection team to the investigation, while the residents of Kahaleh were still refusing to present their testimonies.
The town’s municipality refused the summoning of its residents, stressing in a statement that the investigations “should not begin with the questioning of unarmed people, who were present at the time of the incident, but instead should focus on the armed group that opened fire with machine guns”, leading to the death of resident Fadi Bejjani.
Christian political parties supported the municipality’s position.
A member of the Strong Republic bloc, MP Ghayath Yazbek, said that the town of Kahaleh refused the summoning of a number of its residents for investigation before handing over Bejjani’s killers to justice.
For his part, the head of the Lebanese Kataeb party, MP Sami Gemayel, said that the “summoning of the people of Kahaleh, who were attacked in their own town, is unacceptable.”
“We stand by the residents of Kahaleh and support their position. We will not remain silent,” he said on X.
