“Netanyahu, America, no good, no good,” a wizened elderly man repeated, as he gazed at the rubble around him. The air strike that caused it was one of two simultaneous hits which formed the deadliest attack on central Beirut since the Israeli assault on Lebanon began. At least 22 people were killed on Thursday night, all of them civilians, according to Lebanese authorities. About 117 people were injured.
Beirut is a city with no air raid sirens, and there was no warning from the Israel Defense Forces before loud explosions shook windows and sent people running. Both the Hizbullah-owned Al-Manar television station and Israeli media said the strikes were supposed to kill Hizbullah official Wafiq Safa, but reports indicate that he survived.
Instead, the civilian population of Lebanon’s capital were terrified once again – and terribly aware that a new densely populated area, previously considered safe, was now another danger zone. One apartment building was levelled and two floors of another decimated.
Israel’s assault on what it says are Hizbullah targets is continuing. Their recent escalation has seen more than 1,500 people killed since September 16th, Lebanese health ministry figures show. More than 9,400 Israeli air strikes have occurred since October 8th last year, according to the Lebanon Supreme Defence Council.
Israeli drones continuously hummed overhead as rescue workers searched through the rubble on Friday. Some passersby prayed in low voices. A woman in sandals and a leopard print coat had tears flowing down her face.
In the building across from the main explosion site, young men rooted through a wardrobe in a room missing its outer wall, trying to retrieve whatever was left of their grey-coated clothes. One shook out a rug and put it in a black plastic bag, then leant in to pick again, but the wardrobe toppled and collapsed in a cloud of dust.
At least six cars were mangled on the road beside, their metal and glass intermingling. Family photos were visible in one blown-out building, and a child’s pink stuffed toy hung halfway down another.
At the second site, four colourful small birds’ bodies were lined up on the bonnet of a car. They were all dead – found inside one of the stricken buildings, a soldier said.
Nader, a 26-year-old local resident, who asked to go by just his first name, said everyone there was in shock. He believes Israel is targeting civilian areas to put pressure on Hizbullah, in an attempt to force their own people to turn against them.
“Let people know it’s not a war on Hizbullah, it’s a war on the people, it’s about resistance ... They are trying to break the people, they are trying to destroy the people, destroy their land,” he said.
“We are not sleeping at night ... Killing and destroying and threatening people, all this aggression, it’s a devastating thing for your mind and heart.
“People in the world and in the international community must understand that if they continue to support Israel, they are doing the most shameful thing ... Just being silent about these acts, if tomorrow things get worse, what do you expect from the people?”
Nader said calling for a ceasefire without condemning Israel for what they had done in both Gaza and Lebanon would also result in “no progress”.
“The international community must start to sanction Israel ... If this aggression continues, it will create genocides and genocides every day.”
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