Mohammad Raad, the leader of Hezbollah's parliamentary group, spoke at a meeting in South Lebanon. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Hezbollah parliamentary group leader Mohammad Raad has said that his party is keen not to get drawn into a civil war, but would make the Lebanese Forces pay the price for Thursday's “massacre” in Beirut's Tayyouneh neighborhood.
Here's what we know:
• Hezbollah has accused Lebanese Forces members of opening fire on Thursday on a demonstration organized by it and the Amal Movement against what they describe as the “politicization” of the investigation into the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion led by Judge Tarek Bitar. The ensuing firefight left seven people dead and more than 30 wounded. Six of those killed were members of Amal or Hezbollah, while the seventh was a woman hit by a bullet while at her home.
• At a meeting organized by Hezbollah in the village of Zrarieh in South Lebanon, Raad returned at length to the violence that occurred Thursday. “The treachery of the Lebanese Forces who committed this massacre on Thursday will be punished,” Raad said, warning that “the blood of our people will not be shed in vain.” However, he added, “But we will not push towards a civil war and we will not threaten civil peace.” Raad also called on “the state to carry out an investigation so that the perpetrators of violence are punished.”
• The Lebanese Forces political party has denied firing at the demonstrators, but its leader Samir Geagea said in an interview on Friday evening that “the residents of Ain al-Rummaneh [a neighborhood adjacent to Tayyouneh] defended themselves” against “Hezbollah militiamen who tried to enter their houses.”
• Several videos showed supporters of the two Shiite parties entering the neighborhood and chanting slogans deemed provocative by residents. Geagea claimed that the residents of Ain al-Rummaneh had “thwarted a new May 7,” in reference to the takeover by Hezbollah fighters of areas in the west of Beirut on May 7, 2008.