A boy in the courtyard of a school where Lebanese families displaced from villages near the southern border have found refuge in the city of Sour, Oct. 19, 2023. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
The disaster management unit of the Federation of Municipalities in Sour, which is responsible for displaced persons from villages in southern Lebanon hit by Israeli attacks since Oct. 8, has temporarily closed its doors in protest at repeated attacks on its staff, the organization announced Sunday.
The conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli army in southern Lebanon, which erupted after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel and the launch of Isreal retaliation in Gaza, has displaced more than 80,000 people living in Lebanese border villages, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration. The Sour region has received a third of those displaced.
The disaster management unit will remain closed "until the i's are dotted and the aggressions, which have not ceased since the start of the war, stop," said municipalities federation president Hassan Dabbouq in a statement. The federation's vice-president, Hassan Hammoud, told L'Orient-Le Jour that the closure should enable the unit to "decide on the measures to be taken" to prevent further attacks.
The most recent attack was on Friday, according to Hammoud, who explained that a woman from Dhaira, a locality in the district, attacked several employees of the unit. According to him, she went to the unit's operations center to ask for a heater. The employees replied that the heaters available were reserved for displaced persons housed in temporary shelters, notably in schools. This response angered the woman, who allegedly assaulted several people, including Mortada Mehanna, director of the disaster management unit. One of the employees suffered a broken nose and another was bitten, Hammoud said, adding that equipment was also damaged. According to the statement, the woman had tried to obtain aid for her relatives, who had already benefited previously from it.
The director called for the courts to "hold the attackers to account."