February in Lebanon: Month of pain and anger
The Lebanese woke up terrified on February 6 as a 7.8-magnitude quake centered in Turkey jolted them from beds, shaking buildings for about 40 seconds.
Many residents of Beirut left their homes and took to the streets or drove in their cars away from buildings, terrorized by memories of the 2020 port explosion that wrecked a large swath of the city.
The quake devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, killing more than 41,732 in the two countries.
Lebanon offered help.
Many Lebanese were missing in Turkey. Lebanese citizen Bassel Habkouk was rescued from the rubble of a destroyed hotel on February 8, two days after the devastating earthquake but his friend Elias Haddad was later found dead.
A third Lebanese man, Mohammed al-Mohammed, is still believed to be under the rubble of the same hotel.
Mohammed had bought two engagement rings from Antakya and sent the photo of the rings to his fiancée as he packed his suitcase to return to Lebanon.
Lebanese national Mohammed Shamma and his son were rescued from the rubble in Turkey’s Hatay province while his wife was killed. Lebanese novelist and activist Dalal Zeineddine and her three sons and grandson were also killed in Hatay’s Antakya.
In Aleppo, three Lebanese were killed in the earthquake.
But that wasn't all. The Lebanese felt many minor quakes in the following days as their local currency hit a new low.
The depreciation has already translated into a surge in fuel prices in a country where 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
In response to the latest price hikes, dozens of taxi drivers on Wednesday blocked the road in front of the interior ministry in Beirut to protest their falling income.
On Thursday, angry protesters smashed windows and set tires on fire outside two banks in Badaro, as the Lebanese pound's value against the dollar plummeted to a new low from 66,000 to 80,000 in less than a week.
In Sin el-Fil, protesters tried to break into the home of chief of Lebanon's bank association, Salim Sfeir, who is also CEO of Bank of Beirut.
Lebanon's struggling banks, which have restricted cash withdrawals since late 2019, were shuttered for a tenth day on Thursday in what they call an “open-ended strike”, following a court case that ruled in favor of a Lebanese depositor demanding their trapped savings.
Political paralysis has also made matters worse for the country, without a president since October 2022, and only with a caretaker government with limited functions.
Caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam announced Thursday a new pricing mechanism for grocery stores, where goods will be priced in dollars based on what he described as a “modest” interpretation of the black market rate.
Also on Thursday, clashes erupted in the eastern Bekaa Valley province after the Lebanese Army raided homes of suspected drug smugglers. The clashes led to the deaths of three soldiers and three armed men from a cartel, the Lebanese military said in a statement.
Source: Naharnet, Associated Press
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