A banner hangs on the side of a building that was targeted by an Israeli air raid two days earlier in Lebanon's southern city of Nabatieh on Feb. 16, 2024. (Credit: Mahmoud Zayyat/AFP)
BEIRUT — Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi on Sunday indicated that the ongoing cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in southern Lebanon might force the municipal elections scheduled across the country for May 3 to be postponed.
Municipal elections have already been postponed twice by Parliament — the first time, the reason was allegedly so that the government could focus on organizing 2022 Parliamentary elections, and the second time allegedly due to a lack of funding available to facilitate the elections.
"We hope that the war on the South will end before May so that we can have the municipal elections and if Parliament hasn't postponed it we have to have them regardless," Mawlawi told Aljadeed TV.
Last week saw the deadliest day in southern Lebanon since hostilities began on Oct. 8. A wave of Israeli air raids targeted Souaneh and Nabatieh, killing ten civilians and three members of Hezbollah. On Monday, an Israeli air raid targeted Ghazieh, a town only five kilometers south of Saida, the third largest city in Lebanon, located on the coast between Sour and Beirut.