A screenshot of a video showing bullets at Cola bridge near Al Jadeed's headquarters in Moseitbeh, Dec. 30, 2022. (Credit: Al Jadeed website)
BEIRUT — Unknown people fired bullets on the Al Jadeed television station in Beirut's Moseitbeh neighborhood Friday morning, the station said, in the third such non-lethal attack this week following a controversial comedy sketch implying sexual relations between southern Lebanese women and foreign UNIFIL peacekeepers.
Al Jadeed said bullets had been found near the Cola bridge close to its headquarters and that nobody had been injured.
On Monday night, an unknown person threw a Molotov cocktail at Al Jadeed headquarters, though the device did not explode. Unidentified people fired bullets at the station on Tuesday night.
It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were directly related to the comedy sketch. Security forces have been on guard at Al Jadeed following the incidents.
Controversial comedy sketch
"The majority of children in the South have green or blue eyes and are blond" amid the presence of "Italian" and "English," UN peacekeepers, said comedian Joanna Karaki in a sketch that appeared on the Al Jadeed program Fachet khele, implying relationships between local women and peacekeepers.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon was established in 1978 and has maintained a significant presence since the end of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, with an average of more than 11,000 soldiers of different nationalities deployed in the South. The UK is not listed by UNIFIL as a troop-contributing country.
An Irish UNIFIL trooper, 23-year-old Sean Rooney, was killed in a rare fatal attack Dec. 14 as his convoy was passing through a village in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah has reportedly handed over a person suspected of involvement in the killing.
Al Jadeed's comedy sketch following the incident sparked outcry. The Shiite High Council on Monday denounced what it called a campaign of "slander, disinformation and defamation against the Shiite community." It also called on "the state and the regulatory authorities to take the necessary legal measures."
Hezbollah MP Ibrahim Moussawi, chairman of the parliamentary information committee, also denounced in a statement Sunday "an odious act" against women in the South. He called on the Minister of Information to take appropriate measures.