“It’s becoming repetitive”: in Ouzaï, the hasty departure of residents after Israeli threats

Wednesday evening, evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army to residents of the neighborhoods of Ouzaï, Haret Hreik, Hadath and Tahouitat el-Ghadir, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, created a vast movement of travel in the area, particularly in Ouzaï, a working-class neighborhood adjacent to the airport.

The neighborhoods of Hadath which are close to the southern suburbs, as well as those of Haret Hreik, have been almost entirely emptied of their inhabitants since the intensification of Israeli strikes at the end of September, unlike other areas of southern Beirut.

Samer Yaacoub, head of the Beirut mohafazat crisis unit, told The Orient-The Day that most of the residents of Ouzaï who evacuated on Wednesday went to the beach of Ramlet el-Baïda to wait for the strikes to end, before returning home. According to him, the reception centers prepared by the authorities to house the displaced have also reached their full capacity.

On social networks, videos filmed by locals show lines of cars and motorcycles leaving the area in the middle of the night in a chaotic atmosphere, all accompanied by incessant honking. On one of the videos, we can see that traffic has been opened, on both sides of the road, to motorists wishing to leave the area.

“We fled”

In another video, a man filming the cars as they leave Ouzaï says: “We will be victorious, labbayka (“at your orders”) Nasrallah. No one will make us bend,” in reference to the former leader of the Shiite party, Hassan Nasrallah, killed at the end of September by a massive Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

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“As soon as they sent the evacuation orders, we got in the car and fled,” Malak Aqil, a resident of Ouzaï, told AFPTV. “It gets repetitive. We had to flee our homes several times. Sometimes we sleep in the car (…), death has become a question of luck, you can die or survive,” confides Ramzi Zeaïter, a resident of the southern suburbs.

At least four strikes, including a very powerful one near Beirut International Airport, were reported Wednesday evening. Around 11:40 p.m., the Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army, Avichay Adraee, announced this new sequence of strikes, calling on residents to evacuate. The strike in Tahouitat el-Ghadir caused a fire at a gas station, according to local media.