Collective Action

Thousands of Hezbollah and Amal supporters filled streets in Beirut’s southern suburbs, chanting sectarian slogans and pledging blind allegiance to the leaders of both parties.

“With our blood, with our souls, we will sacrifice for you Nabih,” the crowd in Beirut’s southern suburbs chanted, in reference to Amal Movement leader Nabih Berri.

A group of men waving Hezbollah and Amal flags later drove through the streets of Beirut, including to Downtown, multiple times, where they honked horns and chanted, “Shiite, Shiite, Shiite.” Some panicked protesters ran away while others picked up sticks and poles to defend themselves, as security forces deployed to disperse the men.

An eyewitness told The Daily Star that she saw one of the men being beaten and then detained by security forces.

Scores also gathered for a candlelit vigil in Nabatieh, speaking in support of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and Berri. “Berri is a prophet, a prophet,” one man said after grabbing a reporter’s microphone. The partisan protests, they said, were held in solidarity with two people - Hussein Chalhoub and his sister-in-law Sanaa al-Jundi - who died in a car crash Monday morning near a roadblock set up by protesters on the Jiyyeh highway.

Video from the scene shows the car driving fast through metal barricades placed in the middle of a highway, before it spins out of control, crashes into a concrete barrier and catches fire. All sides have called for clear and transparent investigations into the incident.

The vigils came after hundreds of Hezbollah and Amal supporters attacked protesters who closed Beirut’s “Ring Bridge” late Sunday night, lobbing stones at them and shouting the same sectarian slogans heard again Monday night.

Running street clashes over about three hours around the “Ring Bridge” left at least three people wounded overnight Sunday into Monday, while cars, shops and tents set up by protesters in Beirut’s central district were destroyed.