Hélène, her husband and their daughter settled in Beirut a month before the events of October 7, 2023. Faced with this never-ending war in the Middle East, these expatriates have no intention of fleeing Lebanon, at a time when the United States is urging its nationals to flee without delay. More than 550 people have been killed, mostly civilians.
From one hour to the next, anxiety is growing. Optimistic in the morning, Hélène has lost her serenity over the hours, as the dispatches arrive on the news sites. At 3 p.m. this Tuesday, the Israeli army announced that it had carried out a new strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. A detonation was heard by Beirut residents, a rare occurrence, despite the violence of the strikes of recent days. “I saw people from the south arriving with their suitcases to stay with friends in Beirut.”
A war in a country “that is not at war!”
“It’s starting to get worrying because we really have the impression that the Israeli government doesn’t want to reduce its attacks. We arrived in Beirut with our daughter, for professional reasons,” testifies Hélène who prefers to remain anonymous. “We do not express our political opinions. We were very well received in this country, we prefer to remain neutral. But Lebanon is not a country at war, a neighbor allows himself to intervene, it is very shocking. How far will we go?”
“In France, we would all be panicking already!”
Having landed a month before the events of October 7, 2023, the situation was then “normal”. “And I want to say that for us, and the entire population, everything seems rather calm because the strikes on Lebanese territory target Hezbollah leaders, weapons storage sites, with little or no collateral damage. Of course, nothing says that there is no storage in Beirut! Hospitals are taking in a lot of wounded, but the system is still coping with this influx. In France, we would all be in a panic already! We even celebrated Heritage Days this weekend. It’s hard to understand, but here we are used to dealing with dramatic events, the 2006 war, the civil war from 1975 to 1990, the port explosion, COVID… People are, however, very affected, there is a form of resilience. People are getting back up and not locking themselves away at home waiting for it to pass. We continue to live almost normally. The shopping centers are stocked, but customers are increasingly fleeing them. more, and the streets are very quiet.”
A historic resilience
For how long? In this region of the world which is not experiencing its first political crisis, “We adapt, that’s how it is, my teenage daughter is informed, we try not to live in stress.”
Strikes took place in the Shiite suburbs of southern Beirut, the headquarters of Hezbollah, close to the airport located just a few kilometers from the historic center where the French family lives, “a neighborhood that can be reached in a few minutes, it is beyond the ring road, in these zones classified as orange and red since October 17, 2023 where all travel is discouraged or even prohibited. We have never heard the slightest explosion, surprisingly, the stores remain open, there is perhaps less traffic. Schools are closed because today is considered a day of national mourning following the attacks. But this could continue, because the Israeli army dropped leaflets this afternoon urging villagers in the south to flee, claiming that Hezbollah were hiding weapons in their area, and that they could be targeted.”
To leave or to stay?
To leave or to stay? There is no dilemma. Arriving in Beirut a year ago, the couple measured the potential danger of their choice, “that things can degenerate at any moment. But as long as the embassy does not ask its nationals to leave the country, we stay. And then there are no more commercial flights with Lufthansa, Air France or Transavia. We follow the news continuously, for the moment there is no reason to be alarmed.”
Creation of two states: “there is no other choice”
However, Hélène and her husband fear that the conflict will intensify. “that we find ourselves in a state of war because Israel could decide on a land attack on Lebanese soil and that we would be forced to return to France. But that is nothing compared to what would happen here, what a waste, it is so monstrous in terms of lives lost, for the economy, and it is futile! The creation of two states, Israel and Palestine, there is no other choice. We are not taking that path.”
The decision to stay, barring mandatory evacuation, is clear in their minds. “We intend to stay here for many more years. There is an extraordinary culture and so much goodwill and kindness.”
