BEIRUT – Lebanon is a country that has clearly not lost its spirit,
but is worried, unhappy, and, as no one hesitates to tell you, "very very
angry". The eight-hour drive from Damascus to Beirut, through a circuitous
route taking us all the way along the coastline to the north Daebouissie
checkpoint to enter north Lebanon, is dotted with signs of devastation,
fleeing refugees and a nation that has not lost its resilience and has
united behind Hezbollah and its charismatic 48-year-old leader, Sayyed
Hassan Nasrallah.
Families with little children are queued up in battered cars in the heat,
waiting for their papers to be cleared for entry into Syria. A young mother
of four little children said her house was not bombed. "We did not want to
leave but have to because our children are so frightened when the Israeli
planes come," she said. A father sitting with two bright young sons speaking
perfect English is leaving his home in north Lebanon to go to Damascus. For
how long? He shrugs, "Who knows, but we will come back." His sons are sombre
but resigned that their studies will be interrupted as now the war has
spread into the north as well and the schools have been closed. Little
children from the refugee families are begging for food and some are
offering to shine shoes in return for much needed money.
Three km from the border and the signs of Israeli aggression begin to
appear. Just four hours before we passed by, the Israeli planes attacked a
bridge and destroyed it. This seems to be the pattern throughout as all
bridges along the route have been hit with the Lebanese now using side roads
to travel. The main Syria-Beirut highway is unusable as it has been
completely bombed with no side roads for the travellers to use. At Haissa,
in a bombing just 24 hours old, 12 persons were killed and 10 badly wounded
in an Israeli air raid. Five days ago, a Palestinian refugee camp near
Tripoli was the target with a police post being attacked by Israeli war
planes in which eight Lebanese policemen were killed. A little further down
we come across yet another bridge destroyed six days ago; there were
casualties although no one was around to give us the figures. A burnt car
was mute testimony to the fact that persons had died in this attack as well.
Not a single bridge was left intact with the air raids over the past week
destroying this very valuable infrastructure in north Lebanon, which is
officially not being targeted by the Israelis.
The other visible target in the area was petrol pumps. Lebanon is without
fuel now, with one huge petrol pump lying devastated at Abi Shamra along
with a bridge and the electricity poles in the vicinity. This attack took
place on Saturday morning as well. Lebanese citizens have climbed the poles
and are trying to restore electricity while others point to the devastation
and voice their anger. It was clear within 10 km into Lebanon that the
Israeli targets were not military in nature with all efforts on to destroy
the infrastructure, stop the supplies of gas, food and essential commodities
as the trucks cannot use the narrow side roads, and to make life impossible
for the Lebanese civilians. "They are fighting us, not the military, our
Hezbollah is fighting their military, not their civilians," a Lebanese
pointed out quietly.
The UN Security Council might have approved of a resolution, but there has
been no let-up in the Israeli offensive here, in north or south Lebanon. The
bombing continues with the hotels in Beirut, the market places and the
squares full of displaced persons from the south. The little hotel where we
are staying is crowded with the displaced Lebanese whose women have tears in
their eyes, whose men can barely speak without emotion overtaking them as
most of them have had their homes destroyed and their relatives killed. A
lovely woman sitting by and smoking the traditional hookah in the lobby
says, as if she were discussing the weather: "My home is completely gone, we
dont think this is going to stop. We are here now, tomorrow even this hotel
might not be safe." There is fear in the eyes of her little girl, who had
just given her exams for the final year in school but does not know what is
going to happen to her and her family now. They are from Tyre.
White phosphorus bombs are being used by Israel, but so far there is no
trace of uranium-tipped bombs. Two-ton bombs have been used in the
neighbourhood. Civilian localities have been virtually destroyed in south
Beirut and the suburbs. This sparkling city is a ghost town with a leading
social activist here pointing out: "It is a very high intensity war." The
shops have their shutters down and only the signs speak of a Beirut that is
famous all across the world for its night life. Casinos, beautiful luxury
resorts along the coastline and stylish beauty salons speak of another
world, but all that one sees now are tense-looking people rushing about in
the day hours trying to get some fuel, food and complete their business
before the Israeli fighter planes come swooping down again.
The Lebanese in Beirut have started getting telephone calls on their
mobiles. It is a psychological warfare method that Israel has perfected. The
caller says words to this effect: "This is the Israeli Army. If you are very
close to the Hezbollah we advise you not to remain in touch. We are going to
smash them and we do not want to hurt you." The intent is to create fear,
but the Lebanese who spoke of this to us said, "We are all laughing, it is
so juvenile and so very stupid." Incidentally, this report is being filed
after the UN Security Council resolution that has brought no relief at all
to the region. No one here in Beirut expects much from it, and while there
might be some hope, there is also a clear resolve to follow "the Hezbollah
and whatever decision it takes". The Hezbollah has made it clear that it
expects the Lebanese government to take the right decision "in the interests
of the nation" and it will abide by it. For the people living under terror,
this is semantics; for them the war will end only after, as they all say to
the last child, "Israel vacates our land and we can go home."
* Seema Mustafa is a member of the 12-person International Civil Society-Parliamentary
Peace Mission that is currently in Lebanon. She is Resident Editor of Asian Age.
