Protesters on Saturday poured into the streets of the Lebanese capital to decry the collapse of the economy, as clashes erupted between supporters and opponents of the Iran-backed Shiite group Hezbollah.
Hundreds filled the streets in and around the protest hub of Martyrs Square in the center of Beirut, with skirmishes also between protesters and security forces, who fired tear gas.
Forty-eight were wounded in the violence, 11 of whom were hospitalized, while the rest were treated at the scene, the Lebanese Red Cross said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
It was the first major anti-government rally attracting demonstrators from across the country since authorities relaxed a lockdown imposed in the middle of March to fight the spread of COVID-19.
“We came on the streets to demand our rights, call for medical care, education, jobs and the basic rights that human beings need to stay alive,” said Christina, a 21-year-old student.
Many protesters wore masks as part of hygiene measures imposed to fight the pandemic, which has severely exacerbated an economic crisis, the worst since the debt-burdened country’s 1975-1990 civil war.
However, Saturday’s protest turned violent as supporters of Hezbollah clashed with some demonstrators calling on the group to disarm.
Hezbollah is the only group to have kept its weapons since the end of the civil war, deeply dividing Lebanon along political lines.
“Weapons should be only in the hands of the army,” said Sana, a 57-year-old female protester from Nabatiyeh, a city in southern Lebanon that is a Hezbollah stronghold.
Soldiers formed a human chain separating the two sides after supporters and opponents of Hezbollah threw stones at each other, a photographer said.
Supporters of Hezbollah, which is also represented in the government and parliament, chanted: “Shiite, Shiite.”
On Saturday evening, there was an exchange of gunfire between residents of a Sunni district, a stronghold of the former Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, and a nearby Shiite neighborhood, a stronghold of the Amal Movement party, a security source said.
Soldiers moved in to restore order, state-run news agency ANI said.
There were also clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, a correspondent there reported.
Security forces fired tear gas near a street leading into the parliament building behind Martyrs Square, after some demonstrators pelted them with stones and ransacked shops.
Some protesters set fire to garbage bins as riot police advanced toward them.
Lebanon has been rocked by a series of political crises in the past few years, before an economic crunch helped trigger unprecedented cross-sectarian mass protests in October last year.
The demonstrations forced the government to resign and a new one headed by Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab was approved by parliament in February, tasked with launching reforms and combating corruption.
Yet many Lebanese say the new administration has failed to find solutions to the country’s manifold problems, including a grinding recession and spiraling inflation.
The local currency has lost more than half of its value on the black market in the past few months, falling from the official rate of 1,514 to more than 4,000 Lebanese pounds to the US dollar.
Banks have gradually stopped all US dollar withdrawals.
A sign held aloft by protesters on Saturday called for “a government that eliminates corruption, not one that protects corruption.”
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