On 5 November, Caabu held an online briefing with Maha Yahya, Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, in which she discussed the situation in Lebanon amid its invasion and bombardment from Israel.
Maha Yahya said that Lebanon today has become the active theatre of the war between Israel and Iran. Despite Israel’s declared goals of returning displaced populations to the north, Netanyahu’s talk of a new regional order and telling the Iranians that they will soon have a new regime in place paint quite a different picture.
1.2 million people in Lebanon, 20 percent of the population, were displaced in the space of just four days as the conflict began. For any country this is a huge number, and Lebanon is a country that has already been going through a massive economic and financial crisis, a political deadlock, the Beirut port explosion- all of which added to the misery of the country.
Yahya described what we are seeing in Lebanon today as scenes of massive destruction, already exceeding Israel’s previous war with Hizbollah in 2006, with 20-30 villages and towns across Lebanon’s border being totally destroyed. She said that what has not been destroyed by aerial bombardments has been dynamited, and the imagery is absolutely horrendous. Israel has extended its bombardments Lebanon, threatening UNESCO cultural heritage sites like Baalbek and Sour. Israel has targeted predominantly Shia areas in its onslaught, giving a sense of collective punishment and the feeling of a war on the Lebanese Shiite community.
Israel's targeted killing of anyone affiliated with Hizbollah has created intense fear. Yahya highlighted that people are now terrified of hosting the displaced, and that people no longer rent out to others whom they do not know. Israel's actions have created pressure between Lebanon's various communities and increased pre-existing tensions between Hizbollah and the rest of the Lebanese population.
