“They should be spat on. They deserve even worse,” says a man filming another person tied to a pole, hands and feet bound. The man’s face is swollen, his right eye bruised and bleeding.
"Thieves were caught in Ghobeiri after stealing from displaced people," reads the caption attached to similar videos and photos on X, which proliferated Wednesday morning on the social network. In front of the first man, another stands barefoot, also tied with his hands raised, at the same intersection in Ghobeiri, a neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut. A sign reading "thief" hangs from his waist.
“What’s your name?”
“Mahmoud,” he responds in a faint voice. “
“Why do you steal?” asks the person recording. Other bystanders watch, while cars continue passing by. According to several users online, the suspected thieves had allegedly attempted to break into the empty homes of residents who fled the intense Israeli bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs following the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by the Israeli army on Sept. 27.
“This is an individual initiative, and the Internal Security Forces (ISF) need to address it. It is unacceptable,” responded Maan Khalil, the mayor of Ghobeiri, when contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour. “I don’t have any other information, and I don’t even know if these videos are from today or not. Security forces and the judiciary will do their job,” he said, without providing further details.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, a spokesperson for the Lebanese army confirmed that “residents arrested them while they were stealing from homes. There are two of them, one Syrian and one Palestinian,” he said.
“They tied them up and beat them. The municipality handed them over to the army, which has opened an investigation. If they don’t have proper documents, they will be turned over to General Security,” he explained.
This is not the first time such incidents have occurred in Ghobeiri. At the end of January, photos circulated on social media showing what appeared to be two security guards tying a man to a pole. In one of the photos, the man's face was covered, and a sign reading "I am a thief" was attached to his T-shirt. The municipality of Ghobeiri had filed a lawsuit against Metropolitan, a private security company, in response to that incident.