1000’s of residents in Beirut’s densely-packed southern suburbs camped out in a single day in streets, public squares and makeshift shelters after Israel ordered them out earlier than its jets attacked the Hezbollah stronghold.
“I anticipated the warfare to increase, however I believed it could be restricted to (navy) targets, not civilians, houses, and kids,” mentioned south Beirut resident Rihab Naseef, 56, who spent the evening in a church yard.
AFP photographers noticed households spend the evening within the open, scenes exceptional in Lebanon’s capital for the reason that Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel final went to warfare in 2006.
“I did not even pack any garments, I by no means thought we would go away like this and all of the sudden discover ourselves on the streets,” Naseef mentioned.
Israeli jets pounded Beirut’s south and its outskirts all through the evening, and Beirut woke as much as the aftermath of an evening at warfare, smoke billowing from blazes in a number of locations.
– ‘What is going to occur?’ –
“I am anxious and afraid of what might occur. I left my house with out realizing the place I am going, what is going to occur to me, and whether or not I’ll return,” Naseef mentioned.
Regardless of an evening of intense strikes, the extent of the devastation and the casualty toll was nonetheless unclear early Saturday.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar tv broadcast footage from southern Beirut that confirmed flattened buildings, streets crammed with rubble and clouds of smoke and dirt above the world often called Dahiyeh.
Israel on Friday mentioned it attacked Hezbollah’s south Beirut headquarters and weapons services.
Each Israeli and US media reported that Hezbollah’s chief Hassan Nasrallah was the goal, though a supply near the group mentioned he was “tremendous”.
The group has not formally confirmed that he’s nonetheless alive.
Martyrs’ Sq., Beirut’s important public area, was crammed with exhausted and anxious households tenting out within the open.
“The bombing intensified at evening and our home began shaking,” mentioned an offended Hala Ezzedine, 55, who slept within the sq. after fleeing the Burj al-Barajneh neighbourhood in Dahiyeh the place strikes occurred.
– ‘Kids’s screams’ –
“What did the (Lebanese) individuals do to deserve this?” she requested, including that her house had been destroyed by Israeli strikes in the course of the 2006 warfare.
“They wish to wage warfare however what mistaken did we do?” she mentioned after almost a yr of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah which says it’s performing in help of its ally Hamas in Gaza.
“We do not have to undergo what occurred in Gaza,” Ezzedine mentioned of Israel’s marketing campaign in opposition to the Hamas-run Palestinian territory that has left greater than 41,500 lifeless, in accordance with the well being ministry there.
Israel’s navy offensive got here in response to Hamas’s October 7 assault that resulted within the deaths of 1,205 individuals on Israeli facet, largely civilians, in accordance with an AFP tally primarily based on Israeli official figures that embrace hostages killed in captivity.
When Ezzedine started to criticise Hezbollah’s actions, her husband rapidly interrupted.
“We’re affected person, however we should not be the one ones to pay this value,” he mentioned.
Hawra al-Husseini, 21, described a “very tough evening” after fleeing Dahiyeh to sleep in Martyrs’ Sq. together with her household.
“Missiles rained down over our house. I’ll always remember the youngsters’s screams,” she informed AFP.
“We’re going again house (within the southern suburbs), however we’re scared,” she added.
“It is unattainable to dwell on this nation any extra.”
