Just a month ago, the bustling streets of south Beirut were bustling with traffic, families strolling and young people in cafes, but now the abandoned Hezbollah stronghold is silent, interrupted only by the sound of Israeli bombs.
After nearly a year of low-intensity cross-border exchanges, escalating Israeli attacks since late September have reduced the Lebanese capital’s once densely populated southern suburbs to rubble and forced many of its residents to flee.
Faced with the smell of rotten flesh coming from the ruined buildings, some young black civilians dressed in civilian clothes and occasionally rode around the ruins on their motorcycles.
They saw the odd car and a handful of displaced residents arriving on foot, hurriedly checking their apartments or gathering some belongings before heading back to safety.
“The young people told me not to stay too long because the drones were flying constantly and could attack at any time,” said Mohammed, 32, who came home briefly to get more clothes.
Giving his first name only for security concerns, he said he first flew on September 27, a few days after Israel’s intensified air campaign over Lebanon.
That day, massive Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah’s elusive leader Hassan Nasrallah in the heart of the Iran-backed group’s south Beirut stronghold, leveling several apartment buildings and sparking fears of even greater violence.
“We left in a hurry and thought we would never see our home again,” Mohammed said. He told that his neighbors have also fled.
The building was still standing, but many others have been damaged or destroyed.
attacks on infrastructure
Cracked asphalt and burst pipes caused cracks in nearby buildings as sewage and tap water leaked.
Generators, which had long compensated for daily power cuts after five years of economic crisis, had also broken down.
“About 320 buildings were destroyed in Beirut and its suburbs in less than a month of the war,” Mona Fawaz of the Beirut Urban Lab told AFP.
The destruction surpasses the damage caused in Israel’s last war with Hezbollah in 2006, Fawaz said, adding that there have been record cases of “abicide”, the destruction of cities in the conflict, now focusing on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Used to be.
He accused Israel of “deliberately targeting things that allow life to continue”, including critical infrastructure unaffiliated with Hezbollah.
Hezbollah completely rebuilt the south of Beirut based on existing urban plans from before the 2006 war, which displaced about 100,000 people from the area.
During that 33-day war, Fawaz said, “the survey listed 1,332 severely damaged multi-storey apartment buildings in an area of about 20 square kilometers (eight square miles), of which 281 were completely destroyed.” Were”.
The Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood, which was not damaged in 2006, has been heavily damaged in the bombing this time.
childhood memories
Once again, families from South Beirut are forced to seek refuge elsewhere in the country or abroad.
Many live in rented apartments or with relatives, while others live in shelters set up in schools.
Hassan, 37, grew up in the Maraizeh district south of Beirut, where Israeli jets targeted Hashem Saffiedine, widely seen as Nasrallah’s most likely successor.
Despite the bloodshed, he said Marizeh will always remind him of his “friends, the games we used to play as children, the smell of freshly baked bread in the morning, the neighbors’ conversations and Ramadan celebrations.”
The supermarket where he used to shop is in ruins, with nearby shops, schools and buildings also reduced to debris.
Hassan, who asked to be identified only by first name, was told his favorite record store was no more.
As the war shows no signs of abating, greater losses are certain.
“We are afraid to return after the war to find out how many of our friends have been killed, as happened in 2006,” Hassan said with a sigh.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
