The detonation that shook the neighborhood left them unfazed. In appearance. Sitting on plastic chairs in a small café in Ghobeiry, Hassan and Mohamed, in their forties and with red eyes from a sleepless night, both have a leg that shakes continuously. The two neighbors, driver and restaurateur, say they are physically and nervously exhausted. In this fragile island of life, despite the burning smell that fills the air, people chat around hookahs, eyes fixed on cell phones, trying to locate the latest target of the Israeli army. “The five-story building near the garage? »
For these residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut, Dahiyé, with a Shiite majority, fear has a face that is displayed daily on the social network X, that of Colonel Avichay Adraee, Arabic-speaking spokesperson for the Israeli army. He is the one who announces the bombings. He who forces the rare people who continue to sleep in Dahiyé, emptied of its million inhabitants, to take turns at night to watch over social networks when the others are sleeping. In the early morning, armed men fired into the air to order those most asleep to leave their homes.
This November 14, Hassan and Mohamed left in a hurry around 3 a.m. and slept in a car before returning. “Even the birds flee this place”notes Hassan, bitterly, pointing to a group of seagulls heading towards the sea. The two men evacuated their families a month ago, but stayed to watch over their apartments and those of the neighbors. They say to themselves “civilians, far from politics”. Mohamed, who worked “more than fifteen years in Ivory Coast”, switches from Arabic to French with an Ivorian accent to evoke a future in suspense: “I came back to open a business. I have a restaurant, five employees and as many families to feed. It has been closed since September 23 [le jour où des frappes ont tué 569 personnes dans le pays, dont un grand nombre dans la Dahiyé]. Okay, I still have a home. But for how long? »
Gaping wounds
Ibrahim, who does not hide his sympathies for Hezbollah, also spends his days in Dahiyé. The 28-year-old night taxi driver, whose wife and granddaughter took refuge between Saida and Nabatiyé, a region nevertheless exposed to Israeli fire, remained to monitor his neighborhood with a few neighbors in the southern part of Haret Hreik , a middle-class commercial sector, where Hezbollah houses the headquarters of its associations. “Without water, electricity or shops to get supplies. » His building was miraculously destroyed, two adjoining buildings were destroyed by the strikes. If he “unreservedly supports the resistance”he assures: “There were no weapons. In which case the whole neighborhood would have jumped. » An argument often heard among Hezbollah sympathizers.
You have 64.96% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
