View of Syria from a house in Qanafez, in Hermel, on February 13, 2025. Il(Credit: Matthieu Karam/L’Orient Today.)
The success of a young woman graduating with a technical baccalaureate in Hermel (northern Bekaa) indirectly led to the death of her brother.
After learning Tuesday of his sister's success in the technical baccalaureate, a young man from the Kanaan family immediately left, taking his father's car, and headed toward the Syrian side of the border with a weapon in hand, reports our correspondent Sarah Abdallah, citing security sources.
In this "sensitive" area of Matraba-el-Qasr, where the Army has strict orders to maintain security, a military patrol passing through the area asked the young man to stop. When he refused to comply and stop his vehicle, the patrol opened fire to force the driver out of the car, but he was fatally wounded, according to our correspondent.
The Army released a statement about the incident, specifying that on July 25, 2025, "as a car carrying a Lebanese citizen and a Syrian national passed near an army border observation post in the village of Matraba-el-Qasr, the two men got out of the vehicle and fired shots toward the village, without responding to the soldiers' warnings." The statement also said the two men "tried to leave the scene, threatening to run over the soldiers, who found themselves forced to respond, killing the Lebanese and wounding the Syrian."
The Army noted that "an investigation has been opened under judicial supervision to clarify all the circumstances of the incident."
This area on the Syrian border has seen clashes for several months between various Lebanese and Syrian clans. As recently as July 13, a conflict broke out between members of the Zeaiter clan and others from the Akidi clan in the locality of al-Qasr. Clashes related to smuggling operations had pitted Syrian security forces against Lebanese members of Shiite clans living near the border in February and March. The Army has been heavily deployed in the area to prevent such incidents.
