Bombs have been raining down nonstop on Lebanon, in a spiral of violence that has left hundreds dead. A massive Israeli aerial campaign has rocked the country’s south and east, along with the capital’s crowded southern suburbs. In less than a month, Beirut has begun to look like it did in the dark days of civil war (1975-90) and the ‘33-day war’ between Hizbullah and Israel (2006). Residents have quickly relearned their strategies for survival and helping each other – ‘a Lebanese trademark’, says artist Nasri Sayegh with a sad smile. Amidst the chaos, he helped some 150 domestic workers from Sierra Leone abandoned by their employers to find shelter in an empty warehouse.

A year of cross-border skirmishes had already turned southern Lebanon into a ‘dead zone’. Then, at 8am on Monday 23 September, IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari signalled a dramatic shift as he urged ‘civilians from … villages located in and next to buildings and areas used by Hizbullah for military purposes’ to ‘move out of harm’s way.’ The ultimatum kicked off Operation Northern Arrows, intended to allow 60,000 residents of northern Israel to go home after Hizbullah rocket and missile attacks on their region had forced them to leave.

What followed was the country’s blackest day since the civil war: in just 24 hours 558 people were killed – including 50 children and 94 women, according to Lebanon’s health ministry – as Israel bombed what it said were ‘1,600 Hizbullah targets’. In panic some 100,000 fled, bringing traffic to a standstill along the coastal highway. ‘As we drove, missiles were falling all around us. I saw blood, bodies… ambulances were racing by,’ 28-year-old Rokaya D from Shehabiyeh told me soon after. We spoke at Bir Hasan state school, now a shelter for 300 displaced people.

At 6.20pm on Friday 27 September, multiple terrifying blasts echoed through the capital, reawakening the anguish of the 4 August 2020 port explosion. Everyone was certain their street had been hit. Fadia S, (...)

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