Beit Yahoun residents block a road on Tuesday morning to protest what they say is a year-long government water cutoff. (Courtesy: Hasan Shaaban)
BEIRUT — Photographer Hasan Shaaban said in a tweet on Thursday that he found a bullet in his car this morning, a day after he was beaten, allegedly by Hezbollah supporters, after a protest he covered in southern Lebanon’s Beit Yahoun against water shortages.
Here's what we know:
• “I hold H. N. M, who threatened me in front of 15 witnesses, responsible if any harm comes to me or my dog or my house or my chickens…as well as the people who participated in the beating with him,” Shaaban tweeted.
• Shaaban had shared videos and photos of protests in recent days of protests by residents of Beit Yahoun over what they described as a yearlong cutoff in municipal water supply that had forced them to resort to trucking in private water supplies at a cost of LL300,000 to LL700,000 per tank.
• On Wednesday, Shaaban said a group of 12 to 15 men, who he described as Hezbollah supporters, attacked, beat and threatened to kill him if they saw him again in the area.
• The Alternative Press Syndicate, of which Shaaban is a part, put out a statement following the attack condemning the attack on Shaaban as "an attack on the whole syndicate and on the freedom of the press in Lebanon" and called on the "absent state to take responsibility and immediately hold the attackers accountable.
• A spokesperson for Hezbollah said she did not have information about the circumstances of the incident.
This post has been updated to reflect the Hezbollah spokesperson's response.
This post has been updated to reflect the alleged shooting of Shaaban's car.