Conflict Incident Report

BEIRUT: Dozens of protesters rallying against a plan to build a hospital near a Beirut park on Thursday were met with violence by some local residents.

"When the protesters arrived today (Thursday) to prepare for their rally, they were attacked by around 50 youth holding batons," Mohammad Ayoub, the director of the NGO Nahnoo, told a local TV channel.

“The police and the army watched it happen and did nothing,” Ayoub told Al-Jadeed, holding the Internal Security Forces responsible for the assault.

He claimed that the same men had also gone to people’s homes in the area and warned residents against attending the rally under the threat of violence.

The park, Horsh Beirut, is near Beirut’s Al-Tariq al-Jadidah neighborhood.

Former Mayor Bilal Hamad’s municipal council approved the plan for the Egyptian hospital in 2016, after it was decided in 2014 that the Beirut Arab University hospital should be moved.

The project drew the ire of some of the nearby residents, who use the area for recreational activities that are not permitted within the gates of Horsh Beirut.

Police deployed in the area, separating the two groups in an attempt to placate both sides.