Saturday, December 7

Lebanese civilians return home to shattered lives and cities after ceasefire

MOSBEH ZOUK, Lebanon The happiness that many people in Lebanon had after Israel and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire earlier this week has been dampened by the heartbreaking reality of homes and businesses reduced to smashed steel and crumbling cement.

I don’t own a home. After returning to his birthplace of Maarakah in the Tyre region of southern Lebanon, 56-year-old Ali Eid told NBC News over the phone on Friday, “Now we’re looking in the village to rent one apartment.”

The high school teacher continued, “Like many others, we are very happy to be back, but I look at the people who lost their houses and their loved ones, and it’s devastating.”

Nearly 1.2 million people were displaced inside Lebanon, including Eid, as Israel and the militant group Hezbollah exchanged gunfire during a nearly 14-month conflict that started the day after the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

Despite Israel’s insistence that they remain, thousands of residents who were forced to flee to northern Lebanon due to the fighting have begun to return south as the tenuous ceasefire established by the United States holds.

According to Lebanon’s officials, nearly 3,500 people have died there. According to local statistics, 60,000 people have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel, and 50 civilians and 80 military have been slain.

Imad Komayha is a writer and political activist who left his home in the village of Kfarsir and went about a lot before settling in the north of Lebanon.

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When he returned, he reported that his house was still standing despite the village having about fifty houses demolished. Only a few glass pieces are broken, but my neighbor’s house is on the ground all around us.

I feel simultaneously shocked, terrified, and happy. People are in utter disbelief. Komayha, 58, stated, “Looking at the destruction is devastating.” Shortly after his return, he attended the funerals of a mother, her daughter, and her son-in-law.

We’re attempting to accomplish a lot of things at once, including cleaning the house, welcoming neighbors, collecting updates from absentees, and inquiring about the casualties, he said. Hopefully, this will be our final move. “It’s wonderful to return home,” he continued.

Elham Ezzeldine and others were not as lucky. She calculated that the cost of repairing it would be at least $30,000 after returning to her home in Tyre, in southern Lebanon, from her brother’s house in Beirut, the country’s capital.

“I can’t tell you how much damage there is,” the 51-year-old homemaker stated. Tyre has streets and parts of the city that are on the ground. I’m not sure how long it will take us to return to our typical city and way of life. My spouse is not employed. In Tyre, he formerly owned a clothes store that was totally destroyed.

“I weep for Tyre, my lovely city, and for those who lost their homes and loved ones,” she said. “Aside from death and destruction, I wonder what everyone gained from this damned war,” she continued.

Israel increased its air and military operations in Lebanon in September after nearly a year of cross-border clashes that coincided with the war in Gaza. At the same time, many Hezbollah commanders, including its chief, Hassan Nasrallah, were killed.

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Ali Alamine, who lives in the village of Niha, was similarly upset about the damage. We lost a lot of friends during the conflict, and I am saddened; words cannot express how I feel.

Alamine, 52, claimed that upon witnessing the devastation in Dahiya, which is close by and where his office is located, he sobbed uncontrollably. It’s one thing to hear the news, but it’s quite another to witness the damage, he continued.

In addition to the personal costs of the fighting, the World Bank estimates that Lebanon would incur physical and economic losses of about $8.5 billion, which is a significant amount for a nation still dealing with the fallout from a financial crisis that occurred five years ago.

However, the truce did not address the war in Gaza, where the United Nations and aid officials say hunger and desperation are growing among the population, nearly all of whom depend on humanitarian aid to survive, even though it was the first significant indication of progress in the region since the war started more than a year ago.

Alamine and others are still assessing the destruction in Lebanon in the meantime.

It hurts so much to see all of this, but I thank God that we just lost material things, he added. Let’s hope that all is over and that we can resume our usual lives.

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