I've received death threats from Hezbollah supporters as early as 2014. They intensified in 2016 during the starving of Madaya and the siege of eastern Aleppo bcs of my connections there.

I've had to delete fb as a result some years ago and would avoid tweeting while in Lebanon (pre-October 2019). And this is nothing. I'm not that well-known (thank the f-ing gods) but I still got physically in trouble with security forces and Hezbollah a few times

I 'joke' every year that I made it another year without being kidnapped by Hezbollah but the truth is that Lokman's murder changes everything to me. As of today I am no longer going back to Lebanon.

There are things I can't say due to family relations. I have family links to a politician who is himself linked to Hezbollah and I have to take some precautions on certain things. I've cut ties with that side of the family and I'm not looking back.

For now, that's all I'll say on this. The situation sucks folks. It's absolute shit. There's no other way of describing it. I'll just share this which was recorded this morning https://twitter.com/thebeirutbanyan/status/1357355092584919042