Thousands sleep outdoors in Beirut, flee as Israeli strikes target Hezbollah sites
Angry, scared residents ask why ordinary people have to suffer because Hezbollah wanted to wage war with Israel, fear Lebanon could become like Gaza
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thousands of residents in Beirut’s densely-packed southern suburbs camped out overnight in streets, public squares and makeshift shelters after Israel ordered them out before its jets attacked the Hezbollah stronghold.
Israeli strikes targeted the Hezbollah military headquarters built under apartment buildings in the Dahiyeh neighborhood, a stronghold of the terror group. The IDF on Saturday said that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and other members of the group’s leadership were killed. Hezbollah on Saturday afternoon confirmed Nasrallah’s death.
Several hours after the deadly strike, the army late Friday urged residents of a number of buildings in the area to evacuate, saying that Hezbollah had warehouses of advanced anti-ship missiles stored at the sites.
“I expected the war to expand, but I thought it would be limited to [military] targets, not civilians, homes, and children,” said south Beirut resident Rihab Naseef, 56, who spent the night in a churchyard.
AFP photographers saw families spend the night in the open, scenes unheard of in Lebanon’s capital since the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Israel last went to war in 2006.
Thousands of others fled the city.
“I didn’t even pack any clothes, I never thought we would leave like this and suddenly find ourselves on the streets,” Naseef said.
Israeli jets pounded Beirut’s south and its outskirts throughout the night, and Beirut woke up to the aftermath of a night at war, smoke billowing from blazes in several places. Shelters set up in the city center for displaced people were overflowing.
Rubble and twisted metal filled the streets, clogging roads in some areas.
Even Lebanese army checkpoints at the entrance of the suburb were deserted.
“I’m anxious and afraid of what may happen. I left my home without knowing where I’m going, what will happen to me, and whether I will return,” Naseef said.
Despite a night of intense strikes, the extent of the devastation and the casualty toll was still unclear early Saturday.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television broadcast footage from southern Beirut that showed flattened buildings, streets filled with rubble and clouds of smoke and dust above the area known as Dahiyeh.
Martyrs’ Square, Beirut’s main public space, was filled with exhausted and worried families camping out in the open.
“The bombing intensified at night and our house started shaking,” said an angry Hala Ezzedine, 55, who slept in the square after fleeing the Burj al-Barajneh neighborhood in Dahiyeh where strikes took place.
“What did the [Lebanese] people do to deserve this?” she asked, adding that her home had been destroyed by Israeli strikes during the 2006 war.
“They [Hezbollah] want to wage war but what wrong did we do?” she said after nearly a year of cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah which says it is acting in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza. Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel on October 8th, the day after the Hamas massacre in southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
“We don’t have to go through what happened in Gaza,” Ezzedine said of Israel’s campaign to destroy Hamas and rescue the hostages.
When Ezzedine began to criticize Hezbollah’s actions, her husband quickly interrupted.
“We are patient, but we shouldn’t be the only ones to pay this price,” he said.
Hawra al-Husseini, 21, described a “very difficult night” after fleeing Dahiyeh to sleep in Martyrs’ Square with her family.
“Missiles rained down over our home. I will never forget the children’s screams,” she told AFP.
“We’re going back home [in the southern suburbs], but we’re scared,” she added.
“It’s impossible to live in this country any more.”
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
