“War is forcing itself on us.” Between Israeli strikes and explosions, the Lebanese live in fear

Tuesday, September 17, on the benches of Saint Joseph University in Beirut. Father Gabriel Khairallah, a Jesuit teacher, is in the middle of a class. Several times, the ringing of a telephone interrupts him: the family of a student is desperately trying to reach her. The professor allows him to answer in the corridor. A few seconds later, the young woman starts screaming and ambulance sirens sound in the street.

Everyone rushes to their smartphones. Images are flooding social networks: we see a man buying vegetables at the grocery store exploded by the blast of his pager; another, on a scooter, jumps into the air when the device attached to his belt explodes. “A day of horror, a sample of the permanent anguish in which the Lebanese people find themselves plunged,” summarizes Father Gabriel Khairallah.

The death toll from these explosions, which were attributed to the Israeli intelligence services (Mossad), stands at 37 dead and some 3,500 injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Since the Hamas attacks on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, the clashes between Israel and Hezbollah – a Shiite militia allied with Iran and Hamas, which controls southern Lebanon – have plunged the population of the region into “permanent survival mode”. Nearly 200,000 people have reportedly been forced to move, 80,000 Israelis and 112,000 Lebanese.

“You will not be able to return the Israelis evacuated to northern Israel. The only way is to end the aggression against Gaza,” assured Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, promising a “terrible punishment” for his Hebrew neighbor.

Towards a new invasion?

The Shiite terrorist movement’s ability to respond to the Israeli affront remains limited, however. Thanks to technology, Israel has managed to instill paranoia in the enemy. “Hezbollah, like its Iranian ally, is paralyzed. Their leaders fear that all of their systems, including attack systems, will be hacked by the Mossad,” says Emmanuel Dupuy, president of the Institute for Prospective and Security in Europe.

Is Israel preparing to invade southern Lebanon, as in 1982? Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announces a reorientation of IDF forces toward the border with Lebanon. The inhabitants of the Land of the Cedars, exhausted by the economic crisis – 80% live below the poverty line – are on the alert. “War is imposed on us. Since the civil war (1975-1990), serenity has left us,” says Amale, a Maronite parishioner. “The specter of war keeps coming back, whether it is a new Israeli invasion, air raids or now explosions in the streets.”

Without a viable political horizon, the population lives on life support from the Lebanese diaspora and organizes “remarkable” chains of solidarity, underlines Father Khairallah. Lebanon is demonstrating its resilience, once again embroiled in a war that is not its own.

* To eliminate PLO bases in southern Lebanon. Israel then occupied the area until 1985, and maintained a military presence until 2000.