Walid Joumblatt from the southern suburbs of Beirut: 'We are united, from the south to the mountains'

Former head of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Joumblatt went Saturday night to pay his condolences to Fouad Shukur, the military leader of Hezbollah killed last Tuesday in an Israeli strike on a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut. The attack claimed the lives of five civilians, including two children.

Joumblatt was accompanied in his visit by MP Hadi Abou al-Hosn, a member of the PSP's parliamentary bloc, as well as the vice-president and the secretary-general of the PSP, Zaher Raad and Zafer Nasser.

"We are here to express our solidarity with Hezbollah, and to show solidarity with all those who fight Israel and face Israeli aggression, whether in Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank or elsewhere," Joumblatt said during the condolence ceremony at the Sayyed al-Shuhada compound in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, according to the PSP's account on X. "This is the least of our duties and we are united, from the south to the Mountain, through the suburbs and everywhere else," he added.

The strike that killed Shukur was claimed by Israel as a response to a deadly explosion on Majdal Shams, a predominantly Druze town in the Syrian Golan occupied by Israel, on July 27, which killed twelve children.

Israel accused Hezbollah of being behind the strike, but the party has repeatedly denied any involvement.

Following the strike on Majdal Shams and the deaths within the Druze community, Joumblatt reacted by strongly criticizing Israel. "Targeting civilians is unacceptable and reprehensible, whether in occupied Palestine, in the occupied Golan or in south Lebanon," he wrote. "The history and current events of the Israeli enemy are rich in massacres that it has committed and continues to commit against civilians," Joumblatt continued, calling for avoiding "any slippage." He also called for "preventing the war from spreading and for an immediate end to the Israeli aggression and attacks" against southern Lebanon.

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.