in the south of Lebanon, families stranded in their village, at the heart of the bombings

Many families are stuck in their homes because of Israeli strikes targeting Hezbollah in the region. Faced with the risk of being bombed outside, they no longer dare to go out.

In southern Lebanon, the Israeli army is expanding its incursions and evacuation orders. Dozens of Lebanese villages are affected by the bombings, Lebanon is facing a historic exodus: 1.5 million displaced people. However, despite the risks, often large families are sometimes stranded in their village in the heart of the bombings.

In the village of Zrarieh, near Tire in southern Lebanon, Em Hssein arrived two weeks ago. She fled a village too close to the border and took refuge here with family. His car broke down at the entrance to the village. “I left her on the side of the road. We suffered a lot to get here, she says. No one comes to repair it because the risk is too great. They could be shot at or bombed. Israel does not differentiate between military personnel and civilians.”

The family lives 13 in the same house. Israeli bombardments surround the almost deserted village. And yet the family cannot leave, not knowing where to go, where to take refuge, or where to rent another house. Haniyeh, the oldest member of the family, is in a wheelchair. “Planes shoot, sometimes the smoke is carried here by the wind, up to us, she laments. I hope the war will not be even harder. That God will protect all these young people who suffer it. It is the most violent war we have known. I knew the last war well, that of 2006, it was not as deadly, it was not as violent as today.”

In the south of Lebanon as in the south of the capital, many precarious families did not have the means to leave. Abu Ali knows that the risks are growing. “People who moved here saw their cars destroyed after having parked them on the road. Never had the war been so fierce, she observes. I managed to send part of my family to Beirut. Here, in the village square, they have already destroyed six houses.”

“The bombings killed an 18-year-old boy and another child who was 7 years old.”

Abu Ali, resident of a village in southern Lebanon

at franceinfo

Residents of these villages were ordered to evacuate by the Israeli army. A few kilometers from here, incursions continue and fuel civilian fears. That of being killed, or of reliving the years of occupation again.