An already traumatised nation remains shaken after deadly Israeli attack – The Irish Times

Lebanon is suffering from the deadliest Israeli attack since the 2006 war. The already traumatized country must prepare for more attacks in the coming weeks. As of Monday evening, 356 people had been killed and 1,246 injured, including at least 42 women and 24 children, the Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement.

Israel said it had carried out “extensive and precise attacks,” hitting at least 1,300 targets, but Health Minister Firas Al-Abyad said Monday's attacks hit ambulances, fire trucks, medical centers and the cars of displaced people trying to reach safer areas.

During a late afternoon press conference in Beirut, Al-Abyad said that within a week the number of injured had risen to about 5,000, almost half the total number of those injured in the 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

Videos on WhatsApp showed desolate scenes after air strikes on rural and urban areas. Smoke rose above trees and debris blocked roads. On Monday evening, drones could be heard flying over Beirut.

The attacks took place mainly in southern and eastern Lebanon and came shortly after some Lebanese citizens received recorded phone calls and text messages urging them to evacuate. More than 80,000 automated calls were made on Monday, according to Lebanese telecommunications company Ogero.

Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary told Reuters his office was among the places that received a call, describing it as part of a “psychological war.”

On Monday evening, videos showed crowded streets with little traffic as thousands of people fled southern Lebanon, with some families stranded in their vehicles for hours without water or other assistance.

On social media, Lebanese people posted requests or offers for cheap or free accommodation. Online forms were set up to match people with people willing to take them in. Others complained that some people were taking advantage of the crisis to drastically increase prices.

By early September, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 113,000 people had been displaced from southern Lebanon. At that point, 589 people had already been killed, including at least 137 civilians.

Months of discussions about what many Lebanese call “the situation” have suddenly become even more frenzied. Relatives and friends sent advice on what to stockpile over WhatsApp – rice, gasoline, wheat or water, for example – while neighbors had similar conversations on the street. Lines of cars formed at gas stations, drivers filling tanks with gasoline in case fuel runs out. Others worried they did not have the capacity or money to stockpile adequate food and gasoline.

Lebanon has suffered a series of crippling shocks, including a devastating economic crisis that began in 2019 and the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020. Many citizens have lost confidence in the functioning of their government or state institutions.

The population of around 5.8 million includes an estimated 1.5 million Syrians who fled the war that began in the neighboring country in 2011, as well as around 210,000 Palestinian refugees, most of whom are denied citizenship.

The Lebanese Red Cross said all its emergency and rescue centers were attending to the victims. Ambulances from Beirut and Mount Lebanon were heading south, while displaced people fleeing the barrages were heading north.

Many “brotherly and friendly countries” have expressed their willingness to support Lebanon during this time, said Health Minister Al-Abyad.