As Yama Wolasmal takes the call, he hears the sound of drones.
– Then we know that an attack is close. Beirut now feels like Gaza, he says.
“Telling the kids it’s fireworks”
Yama Wolasmal is NRK’s Middle East correspondent and has lived in Lebanon for four years. He lives in an apartment with his family on the 17th floor of Beirut, overlooking parts of southern Beirut, which were repeatedly attacked by Israel on Friday and overnight into Saturday.
– It has been a dramatic day. I heard several explosions and ran out to the children in the living room.
Laurina and Lydia are five and four years old. But they haven’t told them what’s going on.
– How do you tell children that it is war? We say it’s fireworks so they think it’s someone’s birthday.
He quickly decided to get his family to safety and on Saturday took them to the airport.
– It was a massive attack and now it doesn’t feel like there is any turning back.
On the way to Beirut airport, he saw the destruction after Israel’s attacks. Smoke step from residential building. As the family was checking in, reports came that Israel threatened to bomb the airport if Iran landed a civilian plane, which Israel claimed was loaded with weapons.
– It was as if everyone at the airport froze to ice. We didn’t know what to do. The Iranian plane was never allowed to land and finally my wife and daughters were able to travel to northern Iraq.
In the end, Yama Wolasmal was able to get his wife and children to safety and it had to take the first best flight from Lebanon, which went to Iraq.
– Now I can breathe again. I needed to take my role as a father seriously so I can focus on my job as a journalist, he says.
He is determined to continue reporting on the war and its victims.
– Behind the numbers are human deaths. Those who had to leave their homes and in minutes pack up and run for their lives. I am privileged to have a Norwegian passport and the financial ability to put my family in safety. I am one of the few who have it.