At least five people, including three members of Shiite Hezbollah, were killed and several injured on Sunday August 1 in clashes south of Beirut.
Violence erupted in the area of Khaldé, near the capital, when an ambush targeted the funeral procession of a member of Hezbollah killed the day before.
The attack led to an exchange of fire between supporters of the Shiite party and Sunni residents of the area.
On Saturday evening, Ali Chebli, a member of the powerful armed Shiite movement, was killed at close range during a wedding in Khaldé, a vendetta following the death in August 2020 of two people in the same area during an armed brawl .
After Sunday's violence, the army deployed en masse and "
sent reinforcements
" to the Khaldé sector, a military source told AFP.
She warned in a statement that she
would
"
open fire on any armed person on the roads of Khaldé and on anyone who shoots from anywhere else
."
Hezbollah, for its part, called on the army and security forces to arrest the perpetrators of the "
ambush
" which, according to a statement from the training, left two members of the procession dead.
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The new Prime Minister-designate, Najib Mikati, called for "
restraint
", warning against
confessional
"
discord
", while tensions between Sunnis and Shiites remain quite high in Lebanon, due to political divisions.
This violence occurs in an already difficult context in Lebanon, the country having been mired for nearly two years in an unprecedented economic crisis and increased political instability since the popular uprising in autumn 2019 against a ruling class, accused of corruption.