View of Hebbarieh, a village in the Arkoub region located near Kfar Shuba, in southern Lebanon. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today archive photo)
SOUTH LEBANON — Kfar Shuba Mayor Kassem Kadri was briefly detained Saturday evening by the Israeli army before being released an hour later, our regional correspondent who spoke to the mayor reported.
Kadri said he encountered Israeli soldiers while inspecting the village’s artesian well shortly before sunset. The soldiers then approached him to propose quid-pro-quo collaboration. They asked if he knew the locations of Hezbollah bases in the area and offered him and the residents of the region "cooperation, accompanied by financial aid if he wished."
"We are at your service," the Israeli soldiers told the mayor, our correspondent reports. Kadri told them that the residents of Kfar Shuba are exclusively loyal to the Lebanese state and that his authority falls solely under the latter. He added that such collaboration was out of the question. The official stated his detention lasted about an hour, emphasizing that he was subjected to neither insult nor violence during that time.
Kfar Shuba, a Sunni village in the Hasbaya region of south Lebanon, remains inhabited despite the Israeli presence in the area. Last June, the Israeli army briefly captured a municipal member and a municipal employee.
Reporting contributed by our correspondent in southern Lebanon, Muntasser Abdallah.
