After nearly 3½ weeks of nationwide protests demanding an end to corruption, a new technocratic government and an improved socioeconomic situation in Lebanon, President Michel Aoun told the nation in a televised address Nov. 12 that Lebanon will descend into a "catastrophe" if protesters do not return home and allow Lebanon to work normally again.

Protesters, however, took to the country’s streets soon afterward, blocking roads with burning tires in various parts of Lebanon and marched toward the president’s Baabda Palace on Nov. 13. Security forces blocked demonstrators from reaching their destination, and closed the highway leading to the president’s residence.

The renewed demonstrations have already seen one man near Beirut get shot by a soldier, and a man in Jal el-Dib fired a gun in the direction of protesters, who were also reportedly met by residents who arrived with knives and sticks. Both the soldier and the man with the weapon in Jal el-Dib were reported to have been arrested, and protests are continuing.

Yet behind the backdrop of these political events, the crises facing the Lebanese people have remained unresolved, and have continued to fuel public anger at the country’s leaders. Amid gasoline shortages, limits on cash withdrawals at banks and threats to salaries and many critical imported goods, workers from a variety of industries in Lebanon had gone on strike prior to Aoun’s speech to protest a wide swath of issues related to the continuing economic crisis.