by Anhar Kochneva
Seven civilian vehicles were attacked in Lebanon this week. Three of them were struck by drones approximately 20-25 kilometers south of Beirut, in the Jiya and Saadiyat neighborhoods. Another was in the city of Saida, 40 kilometers south of the capital. Three more were in Tyre, the largest city in the south of the country.
If only the cars hadn’t been driving Hezbollah turbans were they should not have been, the IDF would not have needed to kill them.In Jiya, both cars were attacked on the highway. One of them was hit by two rockets at once and attempted to pull over. The second rocket's blast damaged several stores from shrapnel and the blast wave. Employees were attempting to extinguish the blazing car; used fire extinguishers and drinking water containers were scattered on the pavement.
There were four people in the car, and a large printer was in the trunk. Experts examined it in front of the press. There were definitely no weapons.
A few minutes later, an explosion occurred on a road leading from the same highway into the mountains. As in the previous incident, four people were killed. Three of them were a family with a small child, refugees from the south.
The village of Saadiyat, where this tragedy occurred, was traditionally considered a safe place—until an apartment in a residential complex was attacked in the middle of the night in early March. This was followed by attacks on cars driving along the highway near the village. And now—yet another attack on a car in this small, quiet town.
| Anywhere Hezbollah hangs out is not safe. |
And hundreds are in places where local residents are actively trying to leave. One such place is the city of Tyre, located 80 kilometers south of Beirut and approximately 20 kilometers from the border with Israel.
Tyre is one of the oldest cities on the planet, and its archaeological sites are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. During peacetime, these sites are visited by numerous tourists from various countries, as well as by Lebanese themselves. But now, there are no tourists, and those who live here are trying to leave.
Despite the fact that Tyre's population is actively migrating to safer areas of the country, the city cannot be called deserted: it has been filled with people displaced from even more disadvantaged areas, primarily from villages. Entire villages in the border areas are being destroyed. They are being blown up, bombed, and bulldozed. People have nowhere to return.
| Drive out Hezbollah, and the problem will disappear like the morning mists. |
And although the temporary ceasefire is in fact very relative (the Lebanese report over 2,500 Israeli attacks between April 17 and today), reaching Tyre is possible without significant risk. Meanwhile, in the fall of 2024, every minute spent en route to that city could be your last.
Cars were practically nonexistent on the roads leading into the city at the time: any of them could become the target of another attack, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Spokesperson's Office had repeatedly warned. Lebanese army checkpoints near the Litani River were deserted. And indeed, the city was almost completely deserted.
Traffic towards Tyre today certainly cannot be called intense, but the situation is not like the previous days, when the city was bombed quite actively.
Many people continue to travel in and out of Tyre. Some have come to pick up essential items and furniture. Others are simply inspecting the condition of homes abandoned for long periods. Food and other goods are being delivered to the city. Road crews in the town of Kasmiya were able to build a temporary bridge over the river to replace the one blown up, thereby making the southern districts accessible.
Back in 2006, this bridge was restored by personnel from the Russian Ministry of Defense's special bridge brigade, as commemorated by a memorial sign. Now, following Israeli airstrikes, this sign no longer exists.
| Does the bridge exist? The bridge is the important thing… |
| And Hezbollah is down about a billion dollars since the IDF bombed their Dahiyeh HQ into burning rubble, melting stored gold into rivulets that poetically sank to the bottom of the foundation underneath. |
| Of course. And among the civilian flotsam and jetsam is the remains of the war matériel Hezbollah paid residents good money to store for them against future need. Rare was the house, school, or mosque in Southern Lebanon that lacked its bundle of rockets or missiles, launchers, or cached small arms and ammunition. All that cooking off has given the viewers spectacular fireworks shows since shortly after 10/7/2023. |
And there are dozens of such stories to be found in Lebanon now.
| No doubt. |