When the Israeli bombings gained in intensity on the southern suburbs of Beirut, stronghold of Hezbollah, a few weeks ago, Céline Haidar's family took refuge in Baakline, a picturesque town nestled in the mountain.
“But Céline was forced to go to Beirut for her studies and training”his father Abbas Haidar tells AFP, from Saint-George hospital in the Lebanese capital.
“When there were calls to evacuate and bombings, she left the house, then returned in the evening to sleep”he adds.
On Saturday, the day of the accident, he called her to warn her of a new evacuation order from the Israeli army, which usually precedes strikes, and she left the house. “Then my wife called me to tell me that Céline was in the hospital”he blurted.
She was seriously injured by impact to the headduring a strike on his Chiyah neighborhood. That day, the Israeli army relentlessly shelled the southern suburbs, from morning to evening, targeting at least 10 sites, notably in Chiyah.
“Cerebral hemorrhage”
The young woman was preparing to become captain of her BFA women's first division team –Beirut Football Academy– who won the championship last season.
She was to join the national team for its next competitions, including a meeting with Iran in October canceled because of the war.
She had already won the 2022 West Asian Women's Football Cup with the national under-18 team.
On social networks, a video moved Internet users. We see the young woman on the ground, her face bleeding, while a young man kneeling next to her screams in pain.
“The strike was close (…) she was hit in the head,” his mother Sanaa Shahroura told AFP. “My daughter has a brain hemorrhage, her skull is cracked.”
She tells how Céline asked her on Saturday to prepare a dish that she liked. “An hour later, her friend calls me to tell me she was injured,” she adds, sobbing. “My daughter is a hero, she will get back up”she insists.
“She dreamed of playing abroad, she said thatshe wanted to be like Ronaldo and Messi (…) She wanted to be a star and have everyone talk about her”, continues the mother.
“They killed her dream (…) Now everyone is talking about her because she is injured, in a war with which she has nothing to do.”
“Fighter on the field”
“The doctors are following her very closely,” his father told AFP from the hospital. “But the damage is very significant, we hope that it will gradually disappear.” “We pay the price for something that is not our fault,” he regrets, crying.
Israel launched a massive bombing campaign at the end of September and ground offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah pro-Iranian.
Since the start, in October 2023, of cross-border exchanges of fire in southern Lebanon on the border with Israel, more than 3,540 people were killedaccording to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, in their vast majority since the escalation in September.
And among the victims according to the media, many athletes were killed. The Lebanese Football Federation suspended its matches, with the exception of a single match which took place.
The head of the BFA team Ziad Saadé explains to AFP that the player is in a as artificial. “Everyone must pray for her, so that she comes back among us.”
“On the pitch, she’s a fighter. The link between defense and attack”explains her coach Samer Barbari, who came to the hospital with his players to support Céline. “She’s an exceptional girl and a great player.”
