Muhammad Hafezeh shows the entry and exit wounds on his 13-year-old son Wassim's arm, from a bullet shot by hunters who had been illegally poaching migratory storks in Bebine, Akkar. Sept. 21, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
More than two dozen people have been struck by stray bullets in Lebanon so far this year, according to a count by L’Orient Today. The below testimony is part of a project by L’Orient Today and L’Orient-Le Jour to document the endemic problem.
Click here to see our ongoing stray bullet tracker and read other testimonies.
BEBNINE, Akkar — In early April this year, thousands of white storks were flying over Lebanon as part of their annual journey north from Africa to Europe.
For one group of hunters in Bebnine, a town about 30 minutes outside Tripoli, it was time to load up Kalashnikovs and shoot the birds for sport.
Hunting migratory birds is illegal in Lebanon, as is the use of military-grade weapons for sport.
Graphic videos and photos circulated on social media showing a large flock of white storks being shot. Several of the birds can be seen falling out of the sky, their wings flailing.
One photo that circulated online depicted dozens of dead storks in a pile, though L’Orient Today was unable to independently verify the image.
About a kilometer away from the hunters, 13-year-old Wassim Hafezeh was playing football outside his house with a friend. He was just steps from his front porch, near the family’s rows of planted vegetables.
A cell phone picture of Wassim's injury shortly after the stray bullet hit his arm in April. Sept. 21, 2023. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today)
Suddenly Wassim felt a sharp pain in his right arm. “I didn’t hear anything, and I didn’t know yet what it was, only that it hurt,” Wassim says.
His friend ran away, terrified, while Wassim rushed inside his house for help.
“I went to my mom and asked her, what’s wrong with my arm? And she said it was a bullet.” She called Wassim’s father, Muhammad, who drove him to a nearby hospital.
“It only hit his flesh, no bone,” Muhammad explains. “I couldn’t believe it was only his arm. I thanked God. He’s my youngest son – all my sons are precious, but Wassim is my youngest.” After a few hours in the hospital and a week of daily injections at the bullet wound site, Wassim was given the all-clear.
His family knows he was lucky.
“What would have happened if the bullet hit closer to his chest?” Muhammad says.
Wassim Hafazeh says he loves reading, and that his favorite subject in school is Arabic. Sept. 21, 2023. (Credit
An illegal hunting ‘massacre’
Each fall and spring, more than two billion migratory birds fly over Lebanon, one of the world’s most important migration corridors, on their annual passage between Europe and Africa. They include all sorts of raptors, pelicans, storks and many other species.
Some 2.6 million birds are illegally killed in Lebanon by poachers in a typical year, according to BirdLife International, a partnership of international bird conservation NGOs, meaning millions of bullets shot into the sky.
Michel Sawan, head of the Lebanese Association of Migratory Birds, claims the real number of killed birds is twice as high, with hunters spread out across Lebanon – including many in Akkar.
Some birds are lucky – at the rehabilitation center Sawan’s NGO runs in Zgharta, 65 of the 70 birds receiving medical treatment are there for “shooting” injuries, he explains.
Yet more animals continue to be brought into Sawan’s center from across Lebanon as hunters continue shooting them.
The shooting threatens humans, too.
Judge Ghassan Bassil is North Lebanon’s public prosecutor for Environmental Crimes. He tells L’Orient Today that he initiated the investigation into the Bebnine stork shootings in April.
So far, Bassil says dozens of men have been brought before the court in the case for having shot “war-grade weapons” into the air and for illegally poaching migratory birds. It’s unclear when the court proceedings might end, or whether they will result in some sort of compensation for Wassim and his family.
Muhammad says the family decided not to file a lawsuit over the shooting. “If I were to file one – who would it even be against? God only knows.”
A former hunter himself, Muhammad says he stopped the sport after having kids. The family also refrains from celebratory gunfire.
“Thank God, we have some awareness about it here. It’s very rare,” according to Muhammad.
“And I really get upset when people shoot at the birds. It’s a shame, they’re animals that are passing through our land. We need to be in harmony with nature.”
