A helicopter puts out a fire following the Beirut Port explosion on Aug. 4, 2020. (Photo: AFP. Collage: Céline Bejjani/L'Orient-Le Jour)
In Lebanon, one can die twice. Ola Attar first lost the will to live after the explosion at the port of Beirut took her husband from her. Her own life was then taken away on April 8 when an Israeli airstrike targeted a building in the a southern suburbs of Beirut.A day before the fatal attack, she had called her sister Roula Attar. What she said was simple: the next 48 hours will be difficult. The cease-fire had just been announced, but no one really believed in it. Roula insisted, begged her to come join her at the school where she had taken refuge in eastern Beirut. Ola hesitated. She had already tried to leave, to seek shelter elsewhere. Too many people, too much noise, too many stares.She didn’t feel comfortable. She refused. "Let me stay at home." In Ouzai, the neighborhood she knew, in the apartment she hadn't left...
In Lebanon, one can die twice. Ola Attar first lost the will to live after the explosion at the port of Beirut took her husband from her. Her own life was then taken away on April 8 when an Israeli airstrike targeted a building in the a southern suburbs of Beirut.A day before the fatal attack, she had called her sister Roula Attar. What she said was simple: the next 48 hours will be difficult. The cease-fire had just been announced, but no one really believed in it. Roula insisted, begged her to come join her at the school where she had taken refuge in eastern Beirut. Ola hesitated. She had already tried to leave, to seek shelter elsewhere. Too many people, too much noise, too many stares.She didn’t feel comfortable. She refused. "Let me stay at home." In Ouzai, the neighborhood she knew, in the apartment she hadn't...