'All I know is that I'm afraid:' Baalbeck residents speak out

"We have the impression that we more or less feel what the inhabitants of southern [Lebanon] are going through," said Amine*, a restaurant manager living in Saraine, one of the villages targeted by Israel on Tuesday night in the Baalbeck district.

Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, the region was rocked by several strikes: Two on the village of Nabi Sheet, one on the neighboring town of Saraine, south-west of Baalbeck, and a fourth on Boday, further west, leaving at least one dead and around twenty wounded. Daily bombardments between Hezbollah and Israel have generally been limited to the southern border since the start of clashes on Oct. 8, in the wake of the Gaza war.

Also the previous day, the Baalbeck region was hit by Israeli strikes, in a clear escalation of violence that has raised fears of widespread conflict in Lebanon and the Middle East since the assassination of Hezbollah military chief Fouad Shukur in the southern suburbs of Beirut on July 30, and of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh a few hours later in Teheran, in two attacks attributed to Israel.

To date, the violence has claimed at least 584 lives in Lebanon, most of them Hezbollah fighters, but also at least 108 civilians, according to a L'Orient-Le Jour count. In Israel and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, 23 soldiers and 26 civilians have been killed, according to the Israeli authorities.

Saraine, 'a ghost town'

When the strike took place during the night, Amine had just returned home with his family after an evening spent at the neighbors'. "It was so loud that I thought it had happened very close to my house. My children were screaming in fear," he says. We immediately took refuge in a room in the house. On this Wednesday morning, Amine is "anxious." "There's nobody on the roads, it's a ghost town," said the 40-year-old.

Sidra*, who runs a convenience store in the same town, was spending the evening with her son and husband when the attack took place. "We ran into a room to take refuge. The strikes were all around us," she says. "This is the second time in a row we've been targeted ... I don't know what that means. All I know is that I'm scared," she admits. The next morning, she woke up "on edge. "I still haven't left the house, I haven't even opened my shop," she stated.

'It's still not the south'

In the nearby village of Nabi Sheet, Mohammad* remains calm. He was smoking an arghileh with his friends when the first explosion sounded in Boday before a second targeted his village.

"I saw the missile fall, but I wasn't afraid. When you see it, you know it's not going to hit you ... We're used to war," added the thirty-year-old. For Mohammad, "the situation is normal" in the Baalbeck region. "When it's hot in the South, as it has been in recent days, or when the 'resistance' throws a big punch, we know that our turn is coming and that they [Israel] are going to come here to let off steam. It's still not the south," he said.

Zeinab*stated that "it's an honor" that her village of Nabi Sheet is being bombed. "The atmosphere is very normal," she stated defensively. "We're protecting Lebanon, and we're proud of it. We're not dragging it into a war, as some traitors say. After all, we have a path to follow."

"We're at war, we have to put up with what's happening," stated Hassan Moussawi, father of three children aged from one-and-a-half to six, who lives in the same village. The victim of the Aug. 21 strike, Ali Moussawi, was one of his distant cousins.

"The strike took place near houses. It was powerful and blew out the windows. The martyr was at home at the time," said the 40-year-old. While he believes that these bombings are still "within the rules of engagement," Hassan has "the impression that everything is going up a notch."

"Our region is going to be hit harder. But I'm not leaving, there's not a safe place left in the country," he stated.

*First names have been changed.

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.