“And we organize more than that, and you have no choice. People’s rights are sacred,” said Alla Khorchid, head of the group. Other incidents on Friday included a man in his 50s accompanied by his son holding up a Byblos Bank in the southern city of Ghazieh, and a man armed with a pellet gun storming a LGB Bank branch in Beirut’s Ramlet al-Bayda. So far the “robbers” have been arrested and released without charge. The interior minister called an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon. Lebanon has been hit by one of the world’s worst economic crises since a financial crash in 2019. Its currency has lost more than 90 percent of its value on the black market, while poverty and unemployment have soared. The banks have been widely accused of operating like a cartel and funneling large sums out of the country for senior Lebanese officials at a time when foreign transfers are already blocked for ordinary citizens.
