Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam announced on Thursday that his account on the X platform had been hacked, explaining that someone had managed to access it and delete a post in which he condemned Israeli attacks and the bulldozing and destruction of villages and towns in southern Lebanon.
Account hacked and statement reposted
Salam said he would repost what he had written the previous day after discovering that the post had been deleted from his account.
What Israel is carrying out in Mansouri, Zawtar al-Sharqiya, Kfar Tebnit and other southern villages and towns—including attacks, incursions, and the systematic bulldozing and destruction of homes, residential neighborhoods, infrastructure, government facilities and places of worship—constitutes a grave violation of the principles and rules of international law and international humanitarian law.
Rejecting justifications for bulldozing and destruction
The Lebanese prime minister rejected justifying the bulldozing and destruction on the grounds that military facilities were present, saying that the nature of the sites targeted on the ground disproved that justification.
Salam added: "The claim that villages and towns, with their homes, neighborhoods, government facilities, public services, places of worship and infrastructure, are all military facilities is an assertion that does not stand up to any logic and cannot serve as a cover for destroying them, displacing their residents and preventing them from returning to them."
Salam concluded his statement by stressing that "Lebanon's sovereignty, the security of its people, and the right of southerners to return to their land and rebuild their villages are not matters open to negotiation."
Direct negotiations and social media campaigns
The announcement that the account had been hacked comes amid social media campaigns targeting Salam and President Joseph Aoun, according to the source material, since Lebanese authorities began direct negotiations with Israel under U.S. auspices, with the aim of reaching an agreement that would end the conflict and push Israeli forces to withdraw from the territories they occupied in southern Lebanon.
The material said Hezbollah had repeatedly announced its opposition to direct negotiations with Israel, while Lebanese authorities remain committed to negotiations as a way to resolve the conflict and ease the repercussions of the war on residents of the south.
According to the source, Israeli forces continued bulldozing villages and homes in southern Lebanon despite 7 rounds of negotiations between the Lebanese and Israeli sides.
