Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Beirut
The
scars of Lebanon’s earlier wars were still visible in Beirut before this one
started. And the city now finds itself, again, in the middle of a conflict,
with new scars emerging.
Nights
here are interrupted by loud blasts and explosions that light up the sky. They
are so powerful that are heard, and sometimes felt, miles away.
Beirut,
so used to wars, seems to be trying to adapt to this new reality. Some shops,
restaurants and bars are open again in central areas, still seen as relatively
safe. Reminders of the war, however, come often: the attacks, the constant
sound of drones flying overhead, or the large numbers of displaced people,
sleeping in streets and squares.
Conversations
are inevitably dominated by what is happening here and across the country, and
the hope that the violence will, “Inshallah”, God willing, end soon.
People
often compare the current violence between Israel and Hezbollah with the
conflict they fought in 2006, which lasted a month. But Israeli airstrikes and
assassinations continue, its ground invasion of the south is apparently
expanding, and with Hezbollah vowing to resist, this war could be longer, and
more painful, than the last one.
