Israel expands its offensive in southern Lebanon. Benyamin Netanyahu called on the Lebanese to “save” their country by liberating it “from Hezbollah”, threatening the country of Cedar to experience the same fate as the Gaza Strip.
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Siham and her husband, Sakaria, come from the village of Chehour, south of the Litani River. Victims of Israeli strikes, they had to leave their house within minutes, leaving everything behind. “Two bombings hit two houses next to ours, she said. Eight families lived there… The neighbor had just given birth a month ago. We saw the corpses, the baby’s head was cut off. We didn’t even have time to close the door, we left. I have no news from my family, my brothers, nothing.” That day, 13 people died in the village.
While the strikes continue in southern Lebanon, it is impossible for Zakaria, 65, to now know what the situation is there. “I don’t know if my house is still standing. If so, maybe we’ll go back one day. If not, we’re definitely homeless.”
After a first stop with friends in Beirut, in a crowded apartment with other displaced people, Siham and Zakaria found refuge with a relative, in the village of Alès, on the heights of Beirut.
From there, it is possible to see the bombs falling on the Lebanese capital. Israel must stop, says Zakaria, from massacring civilians. “They are criminals, they want to take our land, he said. Since the 2000s, in southern Lebanon, we have been experiencing difficult times. I have little time left to live and I want to spend this time in peace, in my house, on my land, and feeling safe.”
Every night, from the village of Aley, on the heights of Beirut, where they took refuge, Zakaria and Siham can hear the incessant bombings on the capital. With this fear: that the house where they are, which accommodates 25 other people, will also end up collapsing. In Lebanon, they say, we are no longer safe anywhere. The Israeli army has been engaged in the south of the country since September 30. In response, Hezbollah threatened on Tuesday October 8 to intensify its strikes on Israel, and in particular on Haifa, the large northern city, if the Jewish state continues to bomb Lebanon.