Jbeil public beach, February 2024. (Credit: Olivia Le Poidevin/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — On a Friday afternoon in April last year, Bechara, aged 23, from the southern town of al-Aishiya, took a trip to Jbeil Public Beach. It was a warm, spring day. He decided to go into the sea.Bechara Kesserwany loved the ocean, his close friend Nour al-Houda al-Khoury says, and he swam often. “He had a very good connection with the water.”Two weeks prior, Bechara and Nour had gone to the seaside together. “I could stay here forever,” he told her, looking out onto the horizon. But that Friday in April was a particularly windy day. Bechara went into the sea, sticking close to the shore, and never came back. Bechara is one of more than 49 people who drowned last year in the sea and rivers in Lebanon, according to data from the Internal Security Forces. This year, the head of the Civil Defense Maritime Rescue Unit, Samir Yazbeck,...
BEIRUT — On a Friday afternoon in April last year, Bechara, aged 23, from the southern town of al-Aishiya, took a trip to Jbeil Public Beach. It was a warm, spring day. He decided to go into the sea.Bechara Kesserwany loved the ocean, his close friend Nour al-Houda al-Khoury says, and he swam often. “He had a very good connection with the water.”Two weeks prior, Bechara and Nour had gone to the seaside together. “I could stay here forever,” he told her, looking out onto the horizon. But that Friday in April was a particularly windy day. Bechara went into the sea, sticking close to the shore, and never came back. Bechara is one of more than 49 people who drowned last year in the sea and rivers in Lebanon, according to data from the Internal Security Forces. This year, the head of the Civil Defense Maritime Rescue Unit,...
