Lebanese officials have been working to quell tensions after Hezbollah circulated rumors that IDF soldiers were hiding in the church of a Christian village in Lebanon, and after many clashes broke out in opposition to the presence of Lebanese people displaced from the country’s south, according to Lebanese media reports.
Lebanon’s internal unrest has been fueled by reports spread by Hezbollah, falsely claiming the presence of IDF soldiers in a church in Dibil, near where the military clashed with the terror group on Wednesday, according to Lebanese media.
A source told the independent Lebanon-based Murr Television station that no soldiers had taken refuge in the church, but that it had been the reason given for attacking the Christian institute with shelling and rocket fire. One resident was reportedly injured by the Hezbollah attack, leading to widespread panic.
Officials also offered tours of the church to LBCI to prove there were no Israelis.
“To clarify what is being circulated, the Dibil municipality confirms that the Israeli army has not entered the town, but is only present on its outskirts, while Lebanese security forces are deployed within the town and are fully carrying out their duty to maintain security and stability,” the municipality published in a statement.
Unverified footage has also been widely distributed, allegedly showing residents of Dibil contacting Hezbollah-affiliated media companies to refute claims of IDF presence.
A resident of Dibil told Red TV Lebanon, “They [Hezbollah] attacked us the first time, then the next day they came back and spat on us. They attacked us a second time, and the next day they went out in protests, on motorcycles, shouting ‘Zionist, Zionist,’ and so on."
“Now they should leave. We don’t want them in our areas. They talk about regions, about coexistence, but we don’t want to coexist with them. We don’t want to coexist with them. We’ve had enough of them as a people; you can’t live with them anymore. Period.”
Christians, Druze, block entry of displaced Shi'ite Muslims
MP Samy Amine Gemayel, from the Kataeb Party, warned on Thursday against turning the unrest in Lebanon into a sectarian issue and condemned Iran for dragging the country into war, according to Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International.
His comments come after reports that some groups of Christian and Druze have sometimes blocked the entry of internally displaced Shi’ites in their neighborhoods, according to research published by Lieutenant Colonel (res.) Dr. Moran Levavoni, a researcher with the Institute for National Security Studies.
“The division between Christians and Shi’ites in South Lebanon is quite wide,” Levanoni told The Jerusalem Post, noting that it was difficult to measure how significant the support for Hezbollah is among Shi’ites due to the danger of speaking against the group.
While difficult to measure, Levanoni said there had been new voices over the last six months speaking against Hezbollah from within the Shi’ite population.
There is far greater support for Amal within Lebanon’s Shi’ite population, he explained, which has seen a rift with Hezbollah over what is seen as a broken promise on the terror group’s part, to not drag Lebanon back into conflict with Israel, though that relationship is slowly repairing.
Levavoni published that the groups blocking entry to the displaced Shi’ites were concerned about the Islamist group taking over their communities, and that potential Hezbollah operatives hiding among them could lead to strikes on their villages.
Israel’s new military operation has led to more than 1.2 million people, approximately 17% of the population, becoming internally displaced, according to figures published by the United Nations.
Small-scale clashes have also reportedly broken out in Beirut in response to Shi’ite Hezbollah supporters blaring music and carrying out patrols in support of the terrorist organization.
Levanoni pointed to plans to build refugee camps in Karantina and Mount Lebanon as a significant source of tension.
“There’s been a big concern that refugees are not going to go away very soon, and they’re going to stay for a while, and they’ve been a question whether Israel is going to attack Hezbollah operators that are hiding among the refugees. It will also harm the Christian village,” he explained, adding that the “very weak” Lebanese government and military are struggling to enforce the law on Hezbollah, even as it challenges the Christian population.
“The Lebanese government is really very weak and very incapable of imposing its force, even inside Beirut,” he claimed.
Former deputy National Security adviser in Israel, now an adjunct professor at Tel Aviv University and Columbia University, Prof. Chuck Freilich (New York University) told the Post that the situation presents Israel with an “unprecedented opportunity to place pressure on Hezbollah” if the Lebanese government is “willing to add a diplomatic pillar to our military efforts.”