The bombings continued almost everywhere this Friday, October 25 in southern Lebanon. Some towns are now almost deserted, such as Nabatieh, where 95% of the population fled within a week.
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With our special correspondents in Nabatieh, Pierre Olivier And Jad El Khoury
What is first striking is the road, in the middle of an arid landscape, to reach this locality. For around twenty kilometers, no vehicles, with the exception of a few UNIFIL armored vehicles which accompanied humanitarian convoys.
On either side of this road, dozens of buildings reduced to piles of rubble, animal corpses littering the ground. The only human faces we encountered were those of the dead fighters of the Hezbollahhuge photos of which are plastered along the roadway.
Nabatieh has become a ghost town. Usually around 80,000 people live there, but 95% fled within a week. The only places where we were able to meet people were the hospital, which receives its share of wounded every day, and the cemetery.
When we went there, an entire family was buried there. This man says he is the only survivor. “ Ten minutes after I left the scene, an Israeli strike hit. everyone is dead “, he explains. “ There were two houses. In the first there were nine people, in the second there were four. They are all my cousins. We were from the same family », he adds.
This man also explained that he would stay in Nabatieh despite everything, because it is his city and it is here that he wants to resist.
Nabatieh, stronghold of the Amal party, ally of Hezbollah
And Israeli strikes continued on this almost empty city. Nabatieh is a stronghold of the Shiite Amal party, an ally of Hezbollah. And even if most of the inhabitants have fled, there would still be weapons caches and fighters in this locality. They are the ones Israel still targets daily.
Throughout our filming, we constantly heard the buzzing of Israeli drones in the sky, without ever being able to see them. Drones that observe people coming and going and allow the Jewish state to target its bombings.
Last Wednesday, a little over a week ago, the mayor of Nabatieh was killed by one of these strikes in the middle of the Municipal Council. This is also what marked the start of the exodus of tens of thousands of Albane residents.
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