As Israeli bombs demolished buildings and smoke billowed into the skies over Lebanon this week, people in Gaza watched with both sympathy and fear about how the escalating war would affect them.
Israel continued its third day of air strikes against Lebanon on Wednesday, saying it was targeting weapons depots and infrastructure of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group.
At least 558 people were killed in Lebanon on Monday in a dramatic attack that followed nearly a year of cross-border violence. It was Lebanon’s deadliest day since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Following Hamas’ unprecedented attack against southern Israel on October 7, Hezbollah said it launched attacks on Israel in solidarity with Hamas, another Iran-backed group.
The October 7 attack has sparked an ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, with Israel’s relentless bombing devastating much of the Palestinian territory.
Chadi Nawfal, a 24-year-old resident of Gaza City who said his home was destroyed in the Israeli attack, told AFP on Wednesday that the footage from Lebanon was hard to watch.
“The bloody scenes we see on our television screens from Lebanon are very harsh images,” he told AFP.
“We people of the Gaza Strip are the only ones who can feel the suffering that the Lebanese people are currently experiencing.”
The continued Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon are the latest in a series of attacks that began last week with the coordinated explosions of Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies.
The blasts killed 39 people and injured nearly 3,000, and were followed by a deadly attack in southern Beirut on Friday that also killed prominent Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqeel.
Israeli focus turns north
On Tuesday, another attack on the Lebanese capital killed Hezbollah rocket force commander Ibrahim Kobeissi.
Overall, Israel’s attack confirmed its Defense Minister Yoav Galant’s claim a week ago that the “center of gravity” of the war was moving north.
Thousands of Israelis have been displaced by Hezbollah shelling, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has said it is determined to return them to their homes on the Lebanese border.
Ayman al-Amreiti, another displaced resident of Gaza City, said he worried the fighting in Lebanon would diminish global attention on the ongoing war in Gaza.
“The military pressure is now shifting towards Lebanon, so the media attention on the Gaza Strip has also become secondary,” the 42-year-old told AFP.
“This fuels the desire of the occupying state (Israel) to commit more crimes.”
Hamas’ attacks on Israel nearly a year ago killed 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. This count includes the killing of hostages.
Of the 251 people taken hostage by Hamas militants that day, 97 are still held in Gaza, 33 of whom the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 41,495 people, mostly civilians, in Gaza, according to figures provided by the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
The United Nations has described these figures as reliable.
“It is the public who suffers”
There are obvious differences in the timeframe and scale, but Umm Munzir Naeem, 52, told AFP she could not help seeing similarities between the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza.
“The war against Lebanon and Hezbollah is the same war as in Gaza. The victims are the people,” he said.
“Small, big, properties, everything is targeted – humans, trees…
“They say it’s against Hamas and Hezbollah, but on the ground people die.”
Amreti said he hoped fighting in both places would end soon, and that it was possible their fates were linked, as Hezbollah had previously promised to stop fighting if a ceasefire was reached in Gaza.
“Hopefully any agreement with Hezbollah will also include Gaza,” he said.
“Right now, this is the hope that the children of the Palestinian people are turning to.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
