Tarek el-Khatib looks from his balcony as smoke rises a few kilometers away. Israel has again struck an apartment building in South Beirut.
The house collapsed to the ground in an instant. According to Israel, the building housed the activities of the extremist organization Hezbollah.
Watch the video of the attack in question, which Israel carried out on 22.10:
42-year-old el-Khatib, who works in the IT field, lives in the Christian neighborhood of Beirut.
However, like many Lebanese, he wonders if anywhere is safe anymore.
In a video, Tarek el-Khatib talks about the feelings of the Lebanese in the middle of the war:
– This is basically a safe area. From my window, however, I can see South Beirut. It’s only a five-minute drive there, el-Khatib tells in a video interview.
In mid-October, Israel struck a village in northern Lebanon in Christian territory, where there are no Hezbollah bases.
– There is a feeling of panic and fear everywhere. All are undersized.
El-Khatib says that life in Beirut changed in August, when Israel began airstrikes on the southern part of the city. The southern parts of Beirut are a support area for Hezbollah.
Until August, Israel carried out airstrikes mainly on Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon. Since then, Israel has also struck elsewhere in Lebanon.
Similarly, Hezbollah has mostly struck the northern part of Israel.
At the time of the interview, the weather is warm in Beirut, but many do not dare to move outside.
The war has also affected el-Khatib’s life a lot. He says that he doesn’t get to meet friends, work is done remotely, and his parents have stayed in Dubai with their other son for the time being.
Israel’s warnings are often incomplete and sometimes not given at all
Israel says it protects Lebanese civilians by giving advance warning of airstrikes.
However, the warnings are often incomplete and sometimes misleading, says the human rights organization A report by Amnesty. Israel has not warned civilians about many attacks at all.
Israel’s longer-term evacuation order applies to approx a quarter of Lebanon’s area in the southern part of the country.
El-Khatib has not received evacuation warnings of airstrikes because Israel has not struck the Christian area in Beirut. El-Khatib says there are no Hezbollah members living in his house.
El-Khatib’s colleague, who lives in a Druze village in the mountains near Beirut, instead received an evacuation order. The Druze are one of the ethnic groups in Lebanon.
Members of Hezbollah had apparently entered the area, which was previously considered safe, among the internally displaced persons in Lebanon.
– In his residential area, an evacuation order was given to the building because there were members of Hezbollah there.
According to el-Khatib, the influx of refugees can be followed by Israeli attacks, which causes local tensions.
– As far as I understand, the residents of the village asked all Hezbollah members to leave so that the village would not be bombed.
“Israel’s cruelty is known and warnings are taken seriously”
Warning messages in Arabic issued by the Israeli army urge people to leave their homes immediately.
Most of the messages come at night, followed by a series of airstrikes.
Usually, warnings are given half an hour to an hour and a half before the attacks. According to Amnesty’s report, sometimes there is even less time to escape.
El-Khatib says he heard the same.
– I heard on TV that Israel said they would bomb the building in half an hour and told them to flee. However, Israel struck the building ten minutes later.
El-Khatib has also heard of warnings that have not been followed by airstrikes. Then Israel has bombed another area without warning.
– It causes panic. When you get a warning, you know that because of the cruelty of the Israelis, the building will collapse. You have to leave if you want to stay alive.
Israel publishes most of the warning messages on social media. After that, the Lebanese media reported on them. People take the warnings very seriously, says el-Khatib.
– If I get a warning myself that this building is going to be bombed, I don’t think about whether it’s a hoax or not. I don’t even think about whether I have time to go to the underground parking garage and get my car.
– I just take the cat with me and go out as quickly as possible. The warning might be real, and the building might collapse on me.