Police cars in Beirut. (Credit: Illustration/AFP/Anwar Amro)
BEIRUT — Two infants, aged three months and one year, were found abandoned in a box under a bridge near Nahr Ibrahim, Jbeil, on Wednesday night, priest Majdi el-Allawi told L'Orient Today.
Allawi owns a childcare center that has adopted the two infants. He said an area resident found the children and contacted called him. The priest then contacted the Jbeil police station, and officers transported the children to Notre Dame Maritime Hospital.
According to the priest, the three-month-old, a girl, was very cold but is now in stable condition.
Allawi took charge of the infants on Thursday, with permission from the judiciary, after their conditions had fully stabilized.
The head of Nahr Ibrahim municipality told L'Orient Today that he hasn't yet spoken Jbeil police station about the matter. Internal Security Forces were not immediately available for comment.
A similar case unfolded Tuesday night when an infant was found abandoned in a bag on a street in Tripoli, North Lebanon.
As Lebanon's severe economic crisis stretches into its fourth year, reports of child abandonment are unfortunately not uncommon. In 2021, a couple was arrested after abandoning their child because he had been reportedly born out of wedlock.
During the large-scale protests in the autumn of 2019, images of a father entrusting his child to the police, claiming he was no longer able to feed him, moved the country.
