Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri appears on a large billboard in Beirut, while another, in the background, shows Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah, in May 2022. (Credit: Louai Béchara/AFP archives)
SOUTH LEBANON — The mukhtar of the village of Baissariyeh (Saida), Ali al-Nabulsi, denied on Friday the claims reported by Saudi channel al-Hadath alleging that a clash took place between Hezbollah and its Shiite ally, the Amal Movement, in the village due to the presence of rocket launchers among residential homes.
Israel targeted the surroundings of the village with an airstrike on Friday, as its war planes have threatened and targeted several villages in the Saida area.
Saudi channel al-Hadath shared a video of a fight on its social media accounts, noting that the Lebanese Army put an end to the to the clash after sending reinforcements. "The Amal Movement is preventing Hezbollah’s activities in the Zahrani coast and northern Iqlim al-Tuffah in southern Lebanon in order to avoid being targeted," the channel alleged.
However, mukhtar Nabulsi, contacted by L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South, said that the incident was an individual fight between two families who had prior disputes. "It has no connection whatsoever to political parties or affiliations. Neither the Amal Movement nor Hezbollah were involved in any way, directly or indirectly," he added.
The mukhtar also described the report as being part of a "pattern of misinformation and smear campaigns the channel has consistently promoted against the resistance environment and the people of the South."
He further stressed that members of "Amal and Hezbollah in village share bonds of brotherhood, solidarity, and cooperation, standing ... in line of defense in the face of the Israeli aggression, which does not discriminate in its targeting of Lebanon and its people."
Hezbollah and the Amal Movement, the two main political parties representing the Shiite community in Lebanon, have been allies for long years. In the first days of this year's war between Hezbollah and Israel, the Amal Movement opposed Hezbollah's decision to launch rockets toward Israel a few days after the start of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. However, as the war dragged on, Amal aligned itself behind Hezbollah and seems to have reconsidered its opposition to the military activities of the group, in the context of a war that some consider existential for the Shiite community.
Reporting contributed by Muntasser Abdallah.
