a trace of destruction leads to the city of Nabatiehwhich was once one of the southern resorts of the Lebanon. After a month, the campaign Israeli bombings, which has seriously affected the town, leaving the old market and the Town Hall destroyed, and hardly any people on its streets.
Only the crunching of glass under footsteps and an Israeli drone flying through the sky break the silence in this ghost townin which the owners of the houses and shops have left everything behind to flee to the north of the country. Around 1.2 million Lebanese have been seen forced to leave their homes in the last month, according to official figures.
Nabatieh, one of the most affected places for the intense campaign launched by Israel just a month ago today and largely reduced to rubble, suffered major blows last week.
An Israeli attack on City Hall while a crisis management meeting was taking place killed the town’s mayor, Ahmad Kheilin what was the largest action against a Lebanese official. That week, your old market It was also destroyed in a bombing raid.
With barely a soul on the street
The dark silence in the city is clouded by a motorcycle, car or the footsteps of an elderly man walking through the streets, where today gray characterizes a city previously full of color.
A young man, identified as Ali Baghdadi, appears in his car, stating that they have grown up knowing that this would happen.
“But no matter what happened we would come back here and here it is (the city), in fact it is destroyed but everyone hopes to return“, he indicates in front of an empty health center and a mosque that still maintains its cracked beauty in its minaret.
He criticizes “usurping entities” such as Israel or the United States that seek to “steal the wealth” of the Lebanese population.
“Its only objective is to move us, a systematic displacement process for the Shiitesespecially at this moment,” says the young man, who adds that there is also “endurance” of the population in the face of attacks by Israel, which three weeks ago began an invasion in the south of the Mediterranean country.
“There are men who will stay here and no one will come in. It is true that it may take a long time, but we will stay here (…) All this can be rebuild and the important thing is that we will stay here against their will,” he reaffirms.
Throughout a year of war between Israel and Lebanon, more than 2,500 people have diedthe vast majority during the last month, including more than 100 children. Furthermore, other 11,000 have been injured.
Since the intensification of the Israeli campaign, attacks have been concentrated in the south and east of Lebanonalthough they have also touched points in the north of the country.
Not even history is saved
The destruction of historic market of Nabatieh, which dates back to 1910, has been a very hard blow for its population and for the visitors who went to walk to this open-air souk, especially on Mondays, where bags of spices, sweets and clothing were intermingled. all kinds.
Now, even the teddy bears lie among the rubble. You can still see forgotten children’s sneakers and nearby houses in which everything is visible through their broken glass.
This market has been targeted by Israel on several occasions during the wars that have raged in Lebanon, the last time in 2006.
An assault on the collective memory of the area, in which historic houses of traditional Lebanese architecture were built, now erased from the map.
In addition to Natabieh, Israel has attacked Lebanese heritage in Shot and other areas of the south, and even launched an attack just 500 meters from the Roman ruins of Baalbek, World Heritage of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) in the east of the country, whose damages are waiting to be evaluated.
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