A screenshot from a video showing scuffles between protesters and Lebanese soldiers on July 23, 2025, in front of the Egyptian embassy in Bir Hassan, southern suburb of Beirut. The video is circulating on social media.
A group of activists protesting the Israeli blockade on Gaza gathered Wednesday around midday outside Egypt’s embassy in Bir Hassan, in Beirut’s southern suburbs and tensions arose between them and the Lebanese Army.
Videos circulating on social media, including by the media outlet Sawratcom, show dozens of protesters — many wearing kuffiyehs and/or carrying the Palestinian flag — trying to forcibly enter the embassy and confront the army, which was heavily deployed in the area. The embassy has been surrounded for years by large concrete blocks and barbed wire, making it almost inaccessible from the adjacent avenue.
The protesters’ attempts to force their way into the embassy entrance were pushed back by the army, according to footage filmed by protesters at the scene. L'Orient-Le Jour attempted to verify this information with the Lebanese Army but did not receive confirmation before publishing this article.
In the videos, protesters try to push back the barricade formed by soldiers and are beaten by military personnel. In one clip, the filming protester calls the army “Zionist” and says she’s pleased “to have been able to protest [on the adjacent avenue] even though they tried to prevent us.”
It’s unclear who organized this movement: An observer interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour says they are “leftist groups.”
The choice of Egypt’s embassy is significant, as the country controls Gaza’s southern border and is regularly accused of keeping the crossing closed despite the plight of the people in the enclave, who have faced a one-sided war with Israel since Oct. 8, 2023.
Protesters are calling for Egyptian authorities to “break the blockade” and allow food aid to enter. Millions of Gazans have endured hunger for months, and, according to the U.N., more than a thousand people have been shot dead while trying to reach the few aid deliveries by a U.S.-backed NGO.
Another video from the protest shows the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) taking an elderly woman from the scene to the hospital in an ambulance. In the background, a woman’s voice says she is suffering from a “malaise.” An LRC source confirmed that the protester was evacuated but gave no further details, adding that the clashes did not result in other injuries.
Another demonstration, called for by civil society activists the day before, was held from 11 a.m. to noon in front of the ESCWA (United Nations) building in downtown Beirut, without any incidents.
Civil society lawyer Hassan Bazzi noted on his Facebook account that 63 activists attended and delivered a letter to the U.N. secretary-general about the war and famine in Gaza.
Sit-in at Beddawi camp
A sit-in against the Israeli blockade on Gaza was also held Wednesday by Palestinians at the Beddawi camp (northern Lebanon). Demonstrators held up signs against the “killing of children in Gaza,” calling for the “immediate opening of the borders so that aid can be delivered to the enclave.”
At this gathering, the hunger strike by a Palestinian activist in the camp, Atef Khalil, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), was announced. In remarks at the site, Khalil said he was on his second day of striking, saying this action “is a message to the world, which remains silent in the face of Gaza’s blockade and the slow death of its children, women and elderly.”
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