The Haret Hreik neighborhood, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on the night of March 5 to 6, 2026. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour)
The other day, you renewed your subscription to the Lebanese package of local TV channels. Naively, you had canceled it in December 2024 when the last war ended, convinced you wouldn’t need it anymore. You poured yourself a glass of vodka and tuned in to MTV, as if picking up an old bad habit. The scene immediately felt familiar. Almost ordinary. And in that feeling of discomfort, you even found something strangely comforting. On your screen, the image was split into four sections. Just like before, the same visions from before the inferno. In the first section, the MTV studio, where the host kept repeating the evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs. In the other three shots, views of the suburbs.Your body, before your mind, reacclimated in an instant to this four-part image – the one that...
The other day, you renewed your subscription to the Lebanese package of local TV channels. Naively, you had canceled it in December 2024 when the last war ended, convinced you wouldn’t need it anymore. You poured yourself a glass of vodka and tuned in to MTV, as if picking up an old bad habit. The scene immediately felt familiar. Almost ordinary. And in that feeling of discomfort, you even found something strangely comforting. On your screen, the image was split into four sections. Just like before, the same visions from before the inferno. In the first section, the MTV studio, where the host kept repeating the evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army to residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs. In the other three shots, views of the suburbs.Your body, before your mind, reacclimated in an instant to this four-part image – the one...
