Merch She spent the night awake waiting for the time to be evacuated from Lebanon, where she has been unable to sleep in recent days for fear of being hit by one of the thousands of Israeli bombs that have killed some 2,000 died in the last two days. weeks in the Mediterranean country.
“The first day the bombings started, a missile fell behind us, a meter away, but there was a wall and, thank God, nothing happened to us,” says the 61-year-old Spaniard, originally from of San Sebastian, who until recently he lived in the southern city of Sidon.
Since then, with Her husband tried everything possible to find a commercial flight to return to Spain. and find his children in Valencia, but “it was impossible”, he laments from Beirut airport, the only one operational in the whole country.
A few days ago, the Spanish Embassy in Beirut informed that they could be evacuated aboard two army flights that arrived this Thursday in the capital of Lebanon: the first left with more than 200 Spaniards and the second has already covered several dozen people. of places.
Getting to the airport, a risk
Merche arrived in Beirut by road, a journey that took several hours due to huge traffic jams on the main road that connects southern Lebanon to Beirut.
And, according to the Lebanese government, more than 1.2 million people were forced to leave their homes since the outbreak of violence.
Fatimaanother Spanish resident of the southern city of Tyre, assures Efe that while he was in a traffic jam on the road to the capital, a projectile fell 500 meters from the race.
“And when we arrived in Beirut, we also heard the bombings. We are very afraid, until now I am afraid, until now,” he said from the airport, waiting to board.
Diplomatic sources indicated that a few dozen people who had asked to be evacuated did not show upin part, for fear of being hit by bombings.
For this reason, boarding was extended because some Spanish nationals would not arrive at the airport on time.
Samiranother evacuee, had even managed to book a seat on a commercial flight, but upon learning that the evacuation would take place earlier, he decided not to wait.
“I had a flight on the 9th for Madrid, but during these six days, anything can happen, no one knows. I preferred to come back with this evacuation,” he said, visibly nervous at the idea of joining at the earliest. quickly his home in Valladolid.
For him, The turning point was the launch of dozens of ballistic missiles from Iran into Israelwhich, according to the Spaniard, could lead to a regional war and the consequent closure of Lebanese airspace.
“We are like animals who talk about war, we must talk about peace to be human beings,” he emphasizes.
Another war
Accompanied by his wife and children and loaded with several carts of suitcases, Alejandro assures that he does not want to relive in Lebanon a war like that which occurred in 2006 between Israel and the Shiite group Hezbollah.
That time he lived alone with his wife and now they don’t want their children to experience the same thing. “We already know a little about how things are with Israel, there are always excuses to start war and try to invade, and with that we will never have peace,” says the Spaniard of Lebanese origin , who will stay with relatives. in Madrid.
However, Many are optimistic and confident that the war will soon end and they will be able to return home.although some Spaniards who resided in the south do not know if their houses will still be standing when they return.
“I don’t know anything about our house, we feel helpless without knowing it, we’ll see when we can come back. We were very happy, but the war forces us to leave,” laments Merche, saying goodbye to what was his house over the past five years.
