Supported by three men, a crying father, with his hand on his heart, calls out to his daughter from a mound formed by a ruined building in Dahiyé, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Sunday, September 29. “Talk to your father, send me a sign.”urges the man in front of a yellow building collapsed by the explosion of the attacks that pulverized underneath, on Friday, a block of six buildings, under which were the headquarters of the Shiite Hezbollah party and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The bodies of his daughter and his wife are still trapped in the concrete corpse. Like those of Hicham’s uncle, aunt and two cousins (the names have been changed at the request of those interviewed), who came to collect their belongings from the rubble. Civil defense teams have not yet begun searching for civilian victims in buildings severely damaged by the explosion and in the rubble of those reduced to dust.
the body of “sayyid” Nasrallah was found on Saturday in the bowels of an underground bunker. The confirmation of his death by the Party of God caused a shock in the country, frozen in feverish wait. At the grocery store at the entrance to the Shiite Khandak Al-Ghamik district in central Beirut, the cashier has been unable to hold back tears since the announcement of his death. Many Shiites had developed a sense of intimacy with the charismatic leader.
Throughout the grocery store, time seems to have stopped. Mute men, with somber faces, sit on plastic chairs, waiting for instructions on the ceremonies. A man has bandages on both hands and face, like many Hezbollah recruits, injured by the explosion of their beeper, due to sabotage attributed to Israel, on September 17. The men remain standing under the porch of a building, protected from possible stray bullets. At regular intervals, bursts of gunshots echo in the air, in homage to the “martyr”.
Young people at the limit of their nerves
In the heart of the neighborhood, the atmosphere is electric. Young people are on the edge, between anger and the feeling of abandonment. The Shiite party leadership has not yet given them any directives. Local Hezbollah leaders are not sure they can handle them. Journalists are strongly advised to stay away at this time of distress as an outbreak could occur at any time. The sense of power and pride that Hassan Nasrallah projected within the Shia community gives way to vulnerability.
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