Lebanon: Christian politician abducted and killed

As reported by Al-Monitor on 8 April 2024, a local official of the Lebanese Forces (LF), one of the largest Christian political parties in Lebanon, was taken from his car by four armed men while driving back to Beirut after visiting a family on 7 April 2024. His badly beaten body was later discovered in Syria. Only months ago in August 2023, another leading member of LF had been kidnapped, tortured and killed.

World Watch Research analyst Henriette Kats comments: “The Lebanese Forces party is known for its fierce opposition to Hezbollah’s military actions against Israel and although Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah denied all connection to the murder, many partisans and allies hold Hezbollah responsible, even if the Lebanese Army suggested the kidnapping was the work of a criminal gang. What is particularly repugnant about this killing is that the death was ‘celebrated’ on social media even before the body was discovered. In-country contacts said how they received messages stating: ‘We are celebrating his death and we will do it again and again, we will kill any Christian we want anytime. … we will keep killing Christians’. The Christian community in Lebanon is understandably concerned that this will spiral further into civil unrest and violence.”