Under Israeli bombardment, residents of southern Lebanon denounce “an enemy that does not distinguish civilians”

Lebanon’s health ministry said 50 people were killed in intensive Israeli airstrikes on the south of the country on Monday, the heaviest toll in nearly a year of violence.

An unprecedented weekend of violence in southern Lebanon. On the border with Israel, exchanges of fire are dangerously intensifying between Hezbollah and the Israeli army. Hezbollah’s Deputy Secretary General speaks “of a new phase of the war” and evokes a “open and decisive battle”.

On Sunday, September 22, Hezbollah again carried out attacks in civilian areas in northern Israel, and the Jewish state carried out unprecedented air raids in all of southern Lebanon. The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that “50 people were killed and more than 300 injured.“, including children, women and rescue workers, in intensive Israeli strikes on the south of the country on Monday, the heaviest toll in nearly a year of violence.

At the age of 5, Ibrahim lives two kilometers from the border, opposite the village of Houla. With his father, they watch the Israeli air force fly over their house. “Dad, Dad, look at that! There’s another little white dot in the sky that just appeared, it’s back.”he said in a low voice.Yes, he is coming”his father replied. “Look, Dad, a second.” “Yes, be careful, they’re going very, very fast… A series of explosions then shake the valley.

On Sunday, more than a hundred Israeli strikes hit southern Lebanon. Never before have the exchanges of fire with Hezbollah been as violent as this weekend. Near the garage where he works, Bassam met with his friends from the border village of Majd el Slem.

Sitting around a tea, they wait for this new wave of air raids to end. “It’s very difficult, said Bassam, nWe are at war and our lives are at the heart of the battle. I fear for my children, my wife, my neighbors, my country…”

“Every day Israel bombs our people, but we will stay here. This is our land, we will stay here until we die.”

A few streets away, Mustapha has just left the hospital. His medical bed is now in the middle of his living room. He was injured by Israeli gunfire. “A missile landed in front of me, under my car. I had told my children to lie down on the ground and not move. And in a fraction of a second I had three pieces of debris planted in my leg.”he explains. His leg, covered in bruises, has doubled in size.

While more than 100,000 Lebanese are already displaced further north in the country, Mustapha cannot afford to leave his village. With his family, they must stay despite the risks: “We are facing an enemy that does not distinguish between civilians. While we civilians are not engaged in this war. Now no one is safe, everyone lives in fear.”

A fear that has never been greater among civilians in southern Lebanon, who see the war spreading a little more every day.