“Our neighborhood was completely destroyed”: in Lebanon, the exodus under the bombs

Published on September 23, 2024 at 8:41 p.m. / Modified on September 23, 2024 at 9:33 p.m.

On Monday, panic took over Lebanon. In Beirut, gas stations were stormed. Parents came to pick up their children from school. The main roads in the capital were saturated. In the cars, exhausted families. Sometimes eight to a car, they had just spent ten hours on the road to complete a journey that usually takes two. On the highway that connects the south of the country to the capital, cars were at a standstill the entire way. The traffic jam is continuous on this section. And this while the two axes of the highway, usually in opposite directions, have been since this afternoon only intended for people heading to Beirut.

From dawn, a hail of bombings fell on the south and east of Lebanon. The Israeli army claimed to have attacked around 800 targets. According to Health Minister Firas Abiad, the provisional toll of the Israeli strikes on Monday is 356 dead and at least 1,246 wounded. Many people cannot be reached. The telephone network is almost non-existent in the south of the country. Louis, a taxi driver, was able to answer the phone briefly. “We have never experienced anything like this. All the villages in southern Lebanon have been bombed in their hearts,” he said. Even Marjayoun, the Christian village where he lives, which had so far been relatively spared, was hit. He tried to flee with his family, before giving up. “We drove to Nabatieh, then the road was completely blocked. It was no longer possible to move forward and it continued to hit all around. “So we decided to go home.” A loud noise comes through the phone’s microphone. “It just hit next door,” he says as he runs. The conversation cuts off.

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