On Monday evening, Israeli warplanes raided the towns of Kafr Tibnit and Taloussa in southern Lebanon. Israeli artillery bombed the outskirts of the towns of Mifidoun, Hadatha, and Haris. This afternoon, an Israeli drone raided the outskirts of the town of Jarmaq, according to the official Lebanese National News Agency.
This afternoon, Israeli artillery targeted the outskirts of the eastern towns of Zawtar and Mifdoun with heavy shells. An Israeli drone dropped a bomb on farmers on the outskirts of the town of Dermamas, without causing any casualties.
Israel has been waging a war on Lebanon since March 2, after Hezbollah fired missiles at northern Israel. Israeli forces occupied a number of towns in the south.
On June 20, a ceasefire was announced, after which the pace of Israeli targeting decreased.
The "Peace Council" established by US President Donald Trump on Monday stressed the need for Israel to take immediate measures as winter approaches to help the Gaza Strip, which was devastated by war and witnessing deadly floods, accusing the Hebrew state of not taking sufficient steps in this regard.
The council said in a statement, “The issue is no longer limited to an imminent threat as winter approaches, but rather has turned into an urgent humanitarian emergency.”
Heavy rains over the past two days washed away tens of thousands of displaced people’s tents in the Gaza Strip. Which resulted in the killing of at least 5 people, according to Hamas authorities.
The Peace Council added that it warned Israel, which controls all the crossings leading to the Strip, about the need to prepare for winter and seasonal floods.
He also urged the Israeli authorities to “allow and facilitate the entry of all necessary supplies” and to “fully implement” the commitments made under the US President’s plan to stop the war in the Gaza Strip in 2025.
Trump chairs the Peace Council, which was initially established to oversee the truce in Gaza and the reconstruction of the Strip, before its goals expanded.
Since a ceasefire was reached in October 2025, Israel has continued to launch strikes on Gaza on an almost daily basis.
Shortly before the statement was issued, the Israeli army announced that it had allowed more than 8,200 trucks to enter the Gaza Strip carrying supplies, including 91,000 tents. However, the Peace Council considered that the Israeli steps “are still insufficient.”
He said: “We call on the leadership of the current Israeli government to act immediately to allow and facilitate the entry of all humanitarian supplies and necessary winter supplies.”
On the other hand, Israel held Hamas responsible for the floods, considering that the movement should have invested in infrastructure instead of weapons.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, on Sunday, via “X”: “Hamas should not escape responsibility every time it rains.”
The Peace Council called on Hamas to adhere to its obligations under the ceasefire agreement.
The methods of robbery and theft have varied in Lebanon in the recent period, from fraud and impersonation, to causing traffic accidents, and luring victims with fake deals, although the security authorities confirm that crime indicators have declined during the first ten months of 2026. While the agencies have intensified their procedures in Beirut and its surroundings, the testimonies of citizens reveal new tricks that are recorded on a daily basis.
Security deployment and arrests
This issue formed a fundamental focus in the regular ministerial meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam at the Grand Serail, where measures to enhance security in administrative Beirut and Greater Beirut were discussed, especially intensifying patrols and security deployment, with an emphasis on the need to continue them to protect citizens and their property, and enhance their sense of reassurance.
The issue of thefts also formed the focus of a meeting between the Minister of Interior and Municipalities, Ahmed Al-Hajjar, and President Joseph Aoun, where after Al-Hajjar announced the arrest of about 20 people during security operations in coordination between the Ministries of Interior and Defense, most of whom, according to him, confessed to robbery and pickpocketing operations, and some of them had previous convictions. Al-Hajjar stressed that “security measures are continuing, and the security of citizens and the country is a permanent priority, and the responsibility of all of us.” It is forbidden to harm security and stability.”
Numbers that contradict impressions
Meanwhile, a security source revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that most crime indicators declined during the first ten months of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025, considering that “the intense circulation of security incidents across social media sites and WhatsApp groups, without verifying their authenticity, or returning to official sources, contributes to exaggerating the facts and creating a state of fear and panic among citizens.”
He explained that “prescribed theft” increased by 9 percent, compared to a decrease in theft of people by 5 percent, car theft by 34 percent, pickpocketing by 23 percent, and murder by 26 percent. On the other hand, suicide incidents increased by 9 percent, and, according to the source, they are linked to psychological and social factors and are not included among traditional security crimes.
In Beirut, pickpocketing decreased from 474 to 363 operations, robbery from 237 to 164, while thefts increased from 171 to 174, especially involving homes and motorcycles. As for car theft, it decreased from one transaction to zero.
The source stressed that “these numbers do not mean the absence of crime, or a reduction in the seriousness of incidents to which citizens are exposed,” but rather require distinguishing between facts and impressions that form from their repeated circulation.
Tricks to lure victims
Victim testimonies reveal “new” methods of theft, and a woman told Asharq Al-Awsat that a person approached her while she was getting into her car in front of her house in Choueifat, impersonating an Internet subscription collector. When she told him that she only had a hundred-dollar bill, he promised to exchange it and return the rest, but he took the money and fled.
In Semaan Gallery, a young man said that a car collided with his car in a staged accident, so everyone in the opposite car got out. They refused an expert’s request to inspect the damage, which was minor. They threatened him, asking him to hand over all the money he had, but he had no choice but to comply with their request out of fear of them. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that what was striking was that they were two young men and a woman, and it seemed like they were a network that was professional in this business.
Not a day is complete without hearing about a theft incident in Lebanon in various forms. The security forces had announced that they had revealed the circumstances of the killing of a young man and the theft of his bicycle and phone in Jadra, near Sidon. In Jounieh, east of Beirut, a robbery of $10,000 was revealed through a fake deal to buy a digital currency, while a raid in Sabra in the vicinity of Beirut resulted in the discovery of a warehouse for stolen bicycles and a tunnel for exchanging stolen items between gangs.
Crime between economy and upbringing
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, social specialist Rana Ghanwi believes that “the exacerbation of theft, pickpocketing, and crime in general is linked to economic crises and the absence of systems, laws, and accountability, which are factors that stimulate high crime rates, regardless of their type or nature.” She explains that living pressures may push some people to unleash desires that are usually curbed by moral controls and social norms, and to satisfy the need to obtain money by any means.
She explains that “people may feel safer when they work in a group rather than individually,” which may prompt them to join gangs that give them protection and support. Ghanawi warns that “repeating these practices leads to the normalization of criminal behavior,” so theft gradually turns into a habit and a mechanism for adapting to reality, making it difficult to change.
Ghanawi links the use of intelligence and social capabilities in inventing methods of theft to the weakness of controls arising from education, noting that financial and life crises in a country experiencing one war after another exhaust the family, weakening its bonds and its role in sound upbringing.
