Wednesday November 27. In the cool air of this gray morning, smoke escapes from the ruins of a building. It is 10:30 a.m. At three o'clock in the morning, just a few minutes before the ceasefire came into effect putting an end to sixty days of bombing on the southern suburbs of Beirut, the building was still nine stories tall. It is nothing more than a pile of rubble from which children's toys, photographs and underwear emerge here and there. Between two swirls of mist with a pungent odor, Hussein appears, dressed in a leather jacket and impeccable jeans. “Of course Hezbollah won the war”says the resident. He gestures briskly to what remains of his home. “It’s all nothing. Israel may destroy, but it does not win”.
Nearly 90% of the population left the area in two months of war, according to a source close to Hezbollah who remained there. The neighborhood, access to which was completely prevented by concrete blocks just a few days ago, suddenly regains its freedom of movement. Only a few men dressed in black filter the entrances and exits.
This euphoria is that of civilians who can finally return to their homes. It is disturbing, given the extent of the damage. Here, every street is disfigured. Since September 23, almost daily air raids have targeted Dahieh, Hezbollah's stronghold – where its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah was killed on September 27. Until one final night of chaos, on the night of November 26 to 27. Before the ceasefire agreement officially came into force, the Israeli army intensified its strikes in order to continue “with force its work of dismantling the structures of Hezbollah”according to its Arabic-speaking spokesperson, Avichay Adraee.
“We received an evacuation order around two in the morning, then they hit our building at three-thirty, thirty minutes before the ceasefire”says Hussein, who left the neighborhood at the end of September to take refuge in a village in Mount Lebanon. In 120 seconds, more than 20 strikes hit the area.
Many families returned to the southern suburbs of Beirut when the ceasefire was announced. Credit: APOLLINE CONVAIN / Challenges
After these devastations which aimed to dismantle Hezbollah's infrastructure but did not spare the civilian population, it is still too early to know whether popular support for the Shiite party has strengthened or weakened. The only certainty: the population is more united than ever in its hostility to Israel.
And despite this damage, the residents of the neighborhood are determined to return to live there quickly. Ahmed, 50, hugs his three children, his eyes glued to what remains of the building where he lived with his family for 15 years. In early November, a strike left him gutted. “They wanted to destroy us as Lebanese, but it failed. I will stay here, and I will die here”he continues. A few meters away, men fire their guns into the air, as a sign of victory. Relieved to be back, his heart is however not in celebration. Because if he survived, he knows how great the task will be before rebuilding this life that an Israeli strike shattered in a few seconds.
Apolline Convain, in Beirut.
