Lebanese civil defense and rescue teams search for survivors under the rubble of a collapsed residential building in the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood of Tripoli on Feb. 9, 2026. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
On Sunday, Feb. 8, in Tripoli, a residential building collapsed. Fourteen people, entire families, are buried beneath the rubble. Another building had already fallen two weeks earlier, claiming more lives. The city is not discovering danger. It has been living with it for years. Cracked buildings, entire neighborhoods left in deprivation and an absent state. As if, once again, the next disaster must serve as proof.What happened does not erase the overwhelming responsibility of those who have devastated Tripoli for decades: the elites who have long treated the city as an electoral reservoir or a backdrop for their national ambitions. In Tripoli, the walls did not give way first. Consciences did. The buildings collapsed only after years of political collapse. But governing is not only about inheriting ruins. It is also about acting while...
On Sunday, Feb. 8, in Tripoli, a residential building collapsed. Fourteen people, entire families, are buried beneath the rubble. Another building had already fallen two weeks earlier, claiming more lives. The city is not discovering danger. It has been living with it for years. Cracked buildings, entire neighborhoods left in deprivation and an absent state. As if, once again, the next disaster must serve as proof.What happened does not erase the overwhelming responsibility of those who have devastated Tripoli for decades: the elites who have long treated the city as an electoral reservoir or a backdrop for their national ambitions. In Tripoli, the walls did not give way first. Consciences did. The buildings collapsed only after years of political collapse. But governing is not only about inheriting ruins. It is also about acting while...
