Hezbollah supporters moving around Beirut while carrying the party's flags, on Sept. 26. (Credit: SS taken from a video published by an X account)
BEIRUT — On Thursday night, videos of Hezbollah supporters moving around Ain al-Mraiseh in Beirut, raising Hezbollah's flags and shouting chants in support of the party caused uproar on social media.
Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire since last October amid the war in Gaza. Since Monday, Israel has been launching heavy airstrikes on Lebanon, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands.
In the videos shared online, Hezbollah supporters on motorcycles are seen shouting chants in support of the party's Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and the Southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah's stronghold.
The uproar was specifically caused by the fact that Ain al-Mraiseh is not considered an area where the party is dominant. For that reason, users considered these movements as "provocative."
"Tel Aviv is in another place, shame on you ... May God have mercy on the soul of the martyr Rafiq al-Hariri and God protect Lebanon," journalist Rami Naim posted on X.
Rafiq al-Hariri was the former Prime Minister of Lebanon who was assassinated in Beirut in 2005. In 2020, the U.N.-backed Lebanon Tribunal sentenced Hezbollah member, Salim Ayyash, convicted of conspiring to kill Rafik al-Hariri to five terms of life imprisonment.
Meanwhile, another X user, Nadine Barakat, said: "Why these movements? Why these songs in Hamra and Ain al-Mraiseh? Provocation, victory, joy, feast, or what?"
Moreover, another journalist, Tony Boulos, took a more political stance, saying that the equation has now changed so Hezbollah can not anymore act in this "arrogant and superior way", adding that the people who are behind these movements are living in "denial" and that they should "humble" themselves. Boulos might have referred to the important losses that the party has suffered in the past two weeks as a result of the Israeli attacks.
Finally, an anonymous account shared a video on X which shows "Hezbollah fighters, who fled from South Lebanon, trying to forcibly enter a private property in Beirut." L'Orient Today could not independently verify the authenticity of his claim.
Contacted by L'Orient Today, Beirut's governor was not immediately available to comment.