Supported by three men, a crying father, hand on his heart, calls his daughter from a mound formed by a ruined building in Dahiyé, the southern suburbs of Beirut, Sunday September 29. “Talk to your father, send me a sign”urges the man in front of a yellow building collapsed under the blast of strikes which pulverized below, on Friday, a block of six buildings, under which were the headquarters of the Shiite party Hezbollah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The bodies of his daughter and his wife are still trapped in the concrete carcass. Like those of Hicham’s uncle, aunt and two cousins (the first names have been changed at the request of the interviewees), who came to collect their belongings from the rubble. Civil defense teams have not yet started searching for civilian victims in buildings heavily damaged by the blast of the explosion, and in the rubble of those reduced to dust.
The body of « sayyid » Nasrallah was found on Saturday in the bowels of the underground bunker. The confirmation of his death by the Party of God caused a shock wave in the country, frozen in feverish waiting. In the grocery store at the entrance to the Shiite district of Khandak Al-Ghamik, in the center of Beirut, the cashier has been unable to hold back her tears since the announcement of his death. Many Shiites had developed a sense of intimacy with the charismatic leader.
All around the grocery store, time seems to stand still. Mute men, with somber faces, wait for instructions regarding the ceremonies, seated on plastic chairs. A man has bandages on each hand and face, like many Hezbollah recruits, injured by the explosion of their pager, due to sabotage attributed to Israel, on September 17. Men remain standing under the porch of a building, sheltering from possible stray bullets. Bursts of gunfire ring out in the air at regular intervals, in homage to the « martyr ».
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Young people at the end of their nerves
In the heart of the neighborhood, the atmosphere is electric. Young people are at their wits’ end, between anger and feelings of abandonment. No directive has yet been given to them by the leadership of the Shiite party. Local Hezbollah leaders are not sure they can handle them. Journalists are strongly advised to stay away at this time of distress, as an outburst could occur at any moment. The sense of power and pride that Hassan Nasrallah projected within the Shiite community gives way to vulnerability.
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