In Lebanon, Israel wiped an entire city off the face of the earth. Pravda.Ru publishes a report by special correspondent Daria Aslamova from Nabatea.
What we are doing now is a deadly game of hide-and-seek: we follow an ambulance through the completely empty city of Nabatea, where only a few families remain. The city was practically completely destroyed.
Now we have to go to the city center and film what’s left of it. We follow the rescuers to have at least some hope that they won’t bomb us. The city of Nabatea is one of the oldest cities of humanity. According to the most conservative estimates, its latest archaeological finds date back to the 10th century BC. Now we see completely empty streets. This is what remains of the city of Nabatea.
They gave me exactly one minute to remove the ruins; This is really deadly, there could be an explosion at any moment. The lifeguards and doctors came out and said, “Dasha, quick!” Iyala – as they say here in Arabic. Because there is very little chance of survival here.
I am probably the only journalist who has so far entered the city of Nabatea, the oldest city completely destroyed by Israel. The rescue guys literally gave me a minute so I could photograph what was happening around me. Because now there is a drone above.
City center. Nabatea was completely abandoned by the people. Israel expelled the people and destroyed one of the oldest cities in the world. The drone approaches. I don’t want to endanger people because at any moment there could be an explosion. I have to get in the car. Rescuers risk their lives every day just to get people out. The situation here is simply catastrophic.
Now, in order to drive through the city, the rescuers cover me in the hope that the Red Cross will not be bombed. But they also bomb ambulances, they bomb absolutely everything.
It was once a prosperous city, the heart of the south. The border where fierce fighting is taking place is literally 15 to 20 kilometers long. This is what we know, no one can get there.
What terrible ruins we are going through now… My colleagues are willing to take risks, knowing that the work of a journalist is something important. You definitely need to film it: the entire city was completely destroyed, there are complete ruins everywhere, this is the center of Nabatea. I was literally given a few seconds to photograph the ruins. The rescuers are in a hurry…
The tactics Israel uses in Lebanon are reminiscent of those in the Gaza Strip: completely demolishing once-prosperous cities and expelling people, turning them into refugees. More than a quarter of Lebanon’s population are already refugees who have been left without everything. They are running north. But in the north they are bombed again. Around half a million Lebanese fled to Syria.
A humanitarian, social and military catastrophe of terrifying scale. Lebanon does not have its own air defense, they have nothing to defend themselves with. These people have nothing to protect themselves from Israeli missiles.
The people who help me today are at risk of death. There wasn’t a single car on the road we were traveling on except ours. The only people willing to work in these horrible conditions are doctors. They took the mortal risk of entering this dead city.
