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War in the Middle East: in Beirut, the Franco-Lebanese are worried
The city of Beirut was hit by new strikes during the night from Sunday to Monday. Four people died in this shooting.
(France 2)
After intensely bombing the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, the Israeli army struck for the first time in the heart of the city on Monday morning.
The explosion left a gaping hole in the middle of a building: the Israeli army carried out a strike in the heart of Beirut, killing three members of a Palestinian armed group, the PFLP, Monday September 30, after a week of bombings targeting in particular the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital. If this new strike increases residents’ concerns, the Franco-Lebanese met by France 2 do not plan to flee.
“What would I do in France?”asks Georges Nour, seated on a terrace. “Have a coffee in the morning? Go to the supermarket, bring my liter of wine and go home? And leave my whole life behind like that?” This dual national is already uprooted: like many residents, he fled the south of Lebanon, which was particularly targeted, and does not know what has become of his home. “I don’t want to know.”he said.
Selene Massy is part of a group of volunteers who prepare meals for 2,000 refugees in Beirut. She sees it as a gesture of resistance and “solidarity with the displaced”which also allows “to have moments (…) where we are in the action, where we are not watching the news all the time”. If this other Franco-Lebanese woman doesn’t plan to leave either, she doesn’t deny the danger: “We don’t know today if we are safe everywhere”.
On Sunday, upon his arrival in Beirut, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot announced the death of a French national, the second killed since the start of Israeli bombings on Lebanon.