Mass prison break in Lebanon as 19 detainees escape Ghazir police station

Around midnight Saturday into Sunday, 19 detainees escaped from the Ghazir police station detention center in Lebanon’s Kesrouan-Jbeil district, according to a source in the Internal Security Forces (ISF).

The group, consisting of 13 Syrians, five Lebanese, and one Egyptian national, reportedly broke through a wall in the holding cell to make their escape.

The breakout went unnoticed for approximately an hour and a half, giving the fugitives enough time to flee the area and evade immediate capture. By early Sunday morning, ISF personnel managed to apprehend one of the Lebanese escapees in the Jbeil area.

An internal investigation has been launched to determine whether negligence or collusion played a role in the incident. Meanwhile, search operations are ongoing, and security forces remain on high alert in an effort to locate the remaining fugitives.

The Lebanese Army has not issued any comment at the time of publication.

Lebanon has witnessed a series of prison breaks in recent years, coinciding with a deepening economic crisis. In May, an armed group ambushed a police patrol in Akkar and freed a detainee en route to court. In 2022, 19 inmates escaped from a Jounieh prison, and around 30 others broke out from Beirut’s Adlieh detention center after smuggling in a tool and escaping through a window.

Such incidents have become increasingly common as law enforcement agencies struggle with low morale and plummeting salaries, a consequence of Lebanon’s prolonged financial collapse and the severe depreciation of the national currency since 2019.