In Lebanon’s impoverished south, where Hezbollah holds sway and attacks have been most intense, Syrian refugees have borne the brunt of the recent violence.
By Susannah George and Suzan Haidamous, The Washington PostThe area in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh that was hit by an Israeli airstrike Saturday. Israel described the targeted building as a “Hezbollah weapons storage facility”; the owner denied that.
In Lebanon, already suffering through political paralysis and a protracted economic collapse, people say they feel trapped between the warring parties — and fear there is no way out. In the impoverished south, where Hezbollah holds sway and attacks have been most intense, Syrian refugees have borne the brunt of the recent violence.
Last month, a rocket from Lebanon killed 12 children in a village in the Golan Heights. Israel and the United States blamed Hezbollah for the strike; the militant group denied responsibility. The Israeli military responded by assassinating Fuad Shukr, a high-level Hezbollah commander who was close to the group’s leader, Hasan Nasrallah. A day later, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran; while Israel has not commented on the attack, it told U.S.
The strike hit an industrial area on the edge of the city, a run-down district where most of the workers are Syrian, many war refugees already. Most eke out a living as manual laborers and sleep where they work. “I’m a womanizer and I drink,” he said with a frustrated laugh. “I have nothing to do with any group.” Inside his office, he pulled up CCTV footage from the night of the strike, showing plastic roofing and metal bars being loaded into an otherwise empty warehouse.Laborers at a worksite next door said the strike shook them out of bed, shattering windows and littering the roof with shrapnel. The force of the blast was so strong, one man said, that two people were thrown into the street.
Lebanon says it is constantly updating the emergency plan developed in October to prepare hospitals and other government services in the event of broader conflict. But this is a country that is already unable to provide basic services.
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