Geagea blasts cabinet over compensating southern Lebanese. ‘Pay from your own pockets’, he tells ministers

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea on Thursday blasted the cabinet’s decision to pay $10 million in compensation to southern residents who were affected by Israeli bombardment.

“The $10 million that the government has promised in compensation for the damages inflicted on citizens and properties in the South due to the exchange of rocket and artillery shelling between Hezbollah and Israel should be paid from the pockets of the ministers who voted in favor of this decision,” Geagea said in a post on the X platform, formerly Twitter.

“The majority of the Lebanese people have not authorized anyone to fire rockets from Lebanon at Israel to preserve their ” Geagea added, stressing that Hezbollah’s action was aimed at bolstering Iran’s influence in the region.

He also stressed that “the exchange of shelling is not at all in support of Gaza,” arguing that “the biggest evidence is that the aggression against Gaza continued and is still ongoing .”

“Can more destruction be inflicted on Gaza?” Geagea wondered, noting that Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel from the south “are only aimed at bolstering Iran’s role in the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

This development comes after a senior Hezbollah legislator said Monday that the Iran-backed group will compensate Lebanese whose homes along the Lebanon-Israel border were damaged by Israeli shelling and strikes.

“The Lebanese people were under the impression that Iran would be footing the bill, or Hezbollah would be using some of its drug money to compensate its supporters in the south, but it appears that the Lebanese people will be again the ones paying for this, even though the politicians stole all their deposits in the banks, Ali Hussein a Lebanese analyst told Ya Libnan

“The same situation occurred in the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah appeared on TV and assured the Lebanese that Iran would be paying for the damages with’ halal ‘ money, but Iran paid absolutely nothing and the Arab Gulf countries( whom Hezbollah considers its adversaries ) ended up paying for the whole thing “, Mr Hussein added .

Mr. Hussein added:” I feel sorry for all the martyrs that died as the result of the Hezbollah and Israel clashes. The only beneficiary is Iran and not Lebanon”