Strike on Baalshmey: Municipality denies property sale to Hezbollah member

The municipality of Baalshmey, in Aley, Mount Lebanon, denied on Friday that its mayor, Adham Salim al-Danaf, had sold a village property, hit by a deadly Israeli air raid on Tuesday, to a Hezbollah member.

At least eight people were killed and five wounded in an Israeli strike targeting an area between Abadieh and Baalshmey, near the town of Aley, some 15 kilometers southeast of Beirut. The bombing targeted the residence of a man named Moustapha Mortada, and resulted in the deaths of women and children.

After the bombing, Nadine Barakat, an Internet user who is very active on social networks, where she takes positions against Lebanese leaders and Hezbollah, accused the mayor of Baalshmey on Wednesday of selling the residence and housing a Hezbollah party official there. In a Facebook post, she claimed that Danaf had “brought the targeted official” to the village by selling him the house.

In recent weeks, the Israeli air force has carried out several strikes in areas considered not to be Hezbollah “strongholds,” notably in North Lebanon, in the Chouf and in the Aley district, on houses hosting displaced persons. Although the Israeli army has rarely claimed responsibility for these strikes or announced who it was targeting, reports of some of these strikes have mentioned party officials or members. This phenomenon has, at times, led to tensions between displaced persons and the inhabitants of the villages hosting them.

Following Barakat's accusations, the municipality of Baalshmey, in a statement picked up by local channel MTV, clarified that “the property owned by Mustapha Mortada for over 30 years falls under the zoning of Abadieh,” a neighboring village, and not Baalshmey. The municipality again “categorically denied” the allegations against Danaf, calling them “fabricated and suspicious.”