BEIRUT: A candidate running against Hezbollah in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections was in hospital on Sunday after being assaulted by a group of men in his southern hometown, he told AFP.
Journalist Ali Al-Amin is a vocal critic of the Tehran-backed Hezbollah, and is challenging the party in the upcoming May 6 legislative election.
“I was hanging up the very first picture of myself at the bottom of my street in Shaqra, just 100 meters away from my house,” he said.
Dozens of men approached him and demanded he take down the campaign poster, but he refused. They then began beating him, Amin said.
“I’m at the hospital now. My tooth is broken, I have very severe back pain and was hit in the head,” he said.
Amin, who is running in the polls as a Shiite Muslim, directly blamed Hezbollah: “It was an organized group of well-known guys, authorized by Hezbollah.”
Lebanon’s May 6 legislative vote will be the first since 2009, after years of deadlock and security concerns prompted repeated extensions of the Parliament’s mandate.
It is Amin’s first time running in the southern district, which is granted 11 seats under Lebanon’s new electoral law — eight of them allocated for Shiite Muslims.
Lebanon’s 128 parliamentary seats are distributed according to the religious sects present in each district, with the total body split evenly between Muslims and Christians.
Hezbollah and its ally the Amal movement are the two most powerful political forces in the southern district of Bint Jbeil, where Amin’s hometown lies.
He has received threats in recent years but insisted Saturday’s violence would not deter him.
“This incident won’t affect us, we’re still going to run. But we want the world to see what kind of elections will be held under Hezbollah,” he said.
Hezbollah is a current member of Lebanon’s parliament and cabinet, but the US considers it a “terrorist” group and many criticize it for suppressing dissent in areas under its control.
In 2013, a young protester demonstrating against Hezbollah’s intervention in the war in neighboring Syria was shot and killed, with many blaming Hezbollah although no one was ever charged.
Anti-Hezbollah candidate beaten in southern Lebanon
Anti-Hezbollah candidate beaten in southern Lebanon
Israeli military says unintentionally struck UN agency truck in Gaza
- “Our teams are taking extraordinary risks every day to keep humanitarian operations and life-sustaining services running,” UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in a statement, calling for an investigation into the incident
TEL AVIV: Israel’s military said on Friday that a “firing component” launched by its navy unintentionally struck a fuel truck belonging to a United Nations agency in Gaza the previous day, an incident that prompted the agency to publicly call for a full investigation.
The United Nations Office for Project Services, which oversees fuel distribution in Gaza, said that the empty fuel truck was struck on Thursday around 5 a.m. from the direction of the sea, causing damage to the vehicle. There were no injuries.
“Our teams are taking extraordinary risks every day to keep humanitarian operations and life-sustaining services running,” UNOPS Executive Director Jorge Moreira da Silva said in a statement, calling for an investigation into the incident.
“They should not have to do that under fire,” he said.
In response to Reuters questions, the Israeli military said that the incident occurred during defensive naval activity, and that a firing component deviated from its intended trajectory.
The fuel truck sustained “minor damage,” the military said in a statement. The military did not say what type of munitions had been fired, or what had been the navy’s intended target.
“The incident was reviewed, and lessons were learned accordingly,” it said, without providing further details.
The fuel truck had been on its way to the Kerem Shalom crossing when it was struck, and the truck’s movements had been coordinated with Israeli authorities in advance, UNOPS said.
