RIOTS BREAK OUT IN BEIRUT AS THE PORT EXPLOSION INVESTIGATION NEARS CONCLUSION

The Lebanese Army was deployed to neighborhoods surrounding the court in Beirut.

On the morning of October 14, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement adherents gathered to demand the dismissal of the judge selected to lead the investigation into the Beirut Port Explosion of August 2020. Protests immediately devolved into gunfire and vandalism, sparking sectarian violence that could lead to civil war.

Back in August 4, 2020, a warehouse containing 2750 tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate exploded in the port of Beirut. This disaster, the most powerful non-nuclear explosion ever recorded, devastated the city of Beirut, and caused at least 218 deaths, 7,000 injuries, $15 billion in property damage, and left an estimated 300,000 people homeless.

After many delays and setbacks, a Christian judge named Tareq Bitar was appointed by the Lebanese government to investigate this cause of this catastrophe, and who was ultimately responsible, through gross negligence or malice, for the ammonium nitrate explosion.

Judge Tareq Bitar, leading the investigation into the Beirut Port Explosion

As Judge Bitar’s report was due to release soon, word spread among the Shia groups Hezbollah and Amal that his findings would support the version of events wherein Hezbollah is responsible for the explosion. Immediately, both Shia groups began rallying supporters online to oppose the Judge and the conclusions of his report, with the phrase, “What happened in 2005 will not repeat itself” trending on Twitter in Lebanon and Iraq. In 2005, Hezbollah was creditably blamed for assassinating Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

When issuing death threats against Judge Bitar, and trying to remove him through parliamentary petition both proved unsuccessful, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement instead called for members to attend large protests outside the court in Beirut. Many answered the call of their movements, and arrived at the court with weapons. They started at courthouse, but then branched into a neighboring Christian neighborhood. Crowds shouted “Shia, Shia!” and vandalized property. When one “peaceful protestor” ran out into the street with a rocket-propelled granade launcher, snipers, presumably from Samir Geagea’s Lebanese Forces party (who are Christians) shot him.

With fighting breaking out and tensions mounting, the Lebanese Army deployed.

Hezbollah and the Amal Movement released a joint statement in response to the gunfire in Beirut:

“At 10:45 sniper fire was aimed at the participants of a peaceful protest near the Tayyoune neighbourhood.

The goal of those armed gangs is to drag Lebanon into a civil war.

We call on the Lebanese Army to stop these criminals.

We call to our supporters to maintain restraint and not get dragged into malicious sedition.”

The Lebanese Forces party headed by Samir Geagea released a statement in response to Hezbollah’s accusation about the sniper fire:

“We reject outright Hezbollah’s accusation that we are responsible for the gunfire. We categorically condemn the events of today and call on all the relevant authorities to determine who was responsible for them.”

For now, the Lebanese Army has been able to stop the violence, but not before at least 6 people died, and over 60 people were injured.

The disagreements between the Shia and Christian factions are far from resolved, however. On the contrary, they have deepened and become more clear-cut, with both sides accusing the other of instigation and violence. The acts of bloodshed have also been added to them – there were people killed who belonged to these organizations, and now there is a debt to settle.

For the last few years, Lebanon has been subject to disaster after disaster, slipping closer and closer to being a failed state. As the country descends further into chaos, conditions are primed for another civil war. That would be a crowning devastation for an already stuggling people.

We ask the global Maranatha family to intercede on behalf of the people of Lebanon, as the specter of war looms. We pray that God would reveal the truth of what happened on August 4, 2020, and bring those responsible to justice. Pray against the ever-expanding influence of Iran and Shia Islam in the region, and particularly the way in which they seize power in the midst of chaos and power-vacuums. But above all, pray that the gospel of the Kingdom would spread like wildfire in the country of Lebanon, and they would know the rulership of the only Just King.

Maranatha.

FAI