A deserted street in the Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab, on April 9, 2024, in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel. (Credit: Hasan Fneich/AFP)
The Internal Security Forces (ISF) on Saturday said it had arrested a Lebanese man accused of stealing electric wires from empty houses and construction sites in south Lebanon, where many villages and towns have been deserted amid daily cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israel.
In a statement, the ISF said that after receiving information about an increase in theft in southern villages from which residents were displaced by the ongoing conflict, they arrested an individual identified by the initials H. Kh on April 10 in the village of Hadatha in Bint Jbeil district. The ISF claim the H. Kh was caught in the act of stealing electrical wiring from an empty house.
The ISF said it seized 20 kg of electric wires in the detained man's possession and that after investigating with him, he admitted to similar thefts in Kafra and Haris, also in Bint Jbeil district.
Tens of thousands of residents of south Lebanon have been displaced from their homes since the outbreak of active conflict between Hezbollah and Israel on Oct. 8, the day after the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel and Israel's subsequent strikes on Gaza.
Theft of electric wires and their components has been on the rise in Lebanon since the offset of the country's economic crisis in 2019, as they can be sold to scrap dealers.