Khadija* Today he sleeps on the ground, but he is convinced that sacrifice will help defeat the enemy. On Monday, the 63-year-old woman fled her village in southern Lebanon for the capital Beirut. At 6:30 a.m., he woke up to the sound of enemy missiles just meters from his house, and by 10 a.m. they were already on the highway. “Everything hurts and I’m devastated.”“But God willing, this effort will help change things,” she says from a hotel school converted into a shelter where she has just arrived with her husband.
Their only consolation is that the “Islamic resistance” – Hezbollah and other related groups – will expel the Israeli army from Lebanon, as it managed to do in 2006, and force it out of Gaza as well. Khadijah has given up hope that anyone but the Party of God can successfully oppose Israel: “The Arab countries have sold their souls to the devil and in Europe our lives are worth nothing. We only matter to Iran and they are not even Arabs,” he complains.
On the journey to Beirut, Khadija lost a niece who had started the journey shortly after her. He stayed behind to organize the eviction in the city and by the time he left the house, it was too late. Fortunately, Khadija had taken the deceased’s daughter with him to minimize the risk of her witnessing the attacks. Today, she and her husband take care of the orphan. The three of them live in a cabin in the building, without electricity or mattresses. But the deplorable situation only turns the woman against a culprit: “Death to Israel. “Israel is terrorism, it is Satan himself”.
The neighbors next door do not think like Khadija. “We want peace, only peace,” says Zahra. This woman, originally from the town of Halusiye, does not want to be drawn into a war for the world. He wonders when he will be able to return to his orchard just south of the Litani River, in an area that Israel intends to demilitarize. The journalist underlines in his notebook the phrase that the interviewee repeats so much: “We want peace”.
In the hallways of the building, Zahra sees someone from the neighboring town. It’s another mother. “Do we share?” he asks. It’s a box of household items provided by the Lebanese government for two families. “It’s a joke, we’re going to have to go to the supermarket one day,” he warns his companion. Beyond the limited government aid, the displaced people who arrive at this center are welcomed by several NGOs: Cáritas, Action Against Hunger and Amal, a Shiite party more moderate than Hezbollah but similar to the resistance.
A displaced woman at the Bir Hassan Technical Institute in Beirut, which has been converted into a shelter.
Reuters
As we leave the building, a man without any NGO uniform confiscates the notebook. On the last written page there is only one sentence: Bedna selem (“We want peace”). Surrounded by two partners and already big in himself, he angrily tears out the page and warns the journalist: “No one here said that. “That’s a lie.”
Disappointment with the United States
With the crisis on the brink, the Lebanese government is trying to play all its cards to avoid an open war between Hezbollah and Israel. One of Beirut’s greatest hopes lies in Washington, but the United States has already let the Lebanese down. On Tuesday, Joe Biden delivered his last speech to the United Nations as president of the North American country, and in referring to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, he limited himself to a warning: “A diplomatic solution is still possible; in fact, it remains the only path to lasting security.”
The Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abdallah Bou Habibexpressed disappointment at the statements about the escalation of the crisis, which has already claimed more than 570 lives in just 48 hours. “It was not forceful. It is not promising and would not solve this problem. But there is still hope. The United States is the only country that can really make a difference in the Middle East. and in relation to Lebanon,” he said in New York during a virtual event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
An estimated half a million people have been displaced in Lebanon. Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikatiplans to meet urgently with U.S. officials. Today, Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council is also convened to discuss the conflict. The Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has already expressed his greatest fear: “Lebanon is on the brink of the abyss. “The Lebanese people, the Israeli people and the people of the world cannot allow Lebanon to become another Gaza.”
*Real name withheld for security reasons.
