Fear and resignation in Beirut: Residents fear Israeli attack | News on the Israel-Palestine conflict

People in the Lebanese capital fear that an Israeli operation following the attack on the Golan Heights could also hit Beirut.

Beirut, Lebanon – Jad Barazi’s roommates keep their windows open these days. Not to let in air, but so that they don’t shatter in a sudden explosion.

The 27-year-old entrepreneur is working on her laptop in a cafe in Hamra, a busy Beirut neighborhood. She says she is afraid of a possible large-scale Israeli attack on the city. Since moving to Lebanon over a year ago, the French-Lebanese national says she has gradually become accustomed to living in a country embroiled in a minor conflict with Israel.

But since a deadly rocket hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights last week, killing 12 children, Beirut has been in a state of tension as residents prepare for a major Israeli attack.

Israel has blamed Hezbollah for the attack on the Golan Heights, but the Lebanese armed group has denied any responsibility. Israel has said the group will pay a “heavy price” for it. Since October 8, when Israel and Hezbollah began firing rockets at each other against the backdrop of the war on Gaza, Lebanon has been in the midst of fighting that it hopes will not escalate into a full-blown conflict.

And now that Israel is threatening retaliation for the victims in the Golan Heights, these fears have exploded.

“I am a little worried because I read the news about it every day,” Barazi told Al Jazeera.

“I’m not that scared, but I just want this (attack) to happen because then we can all get over it,” she added.

On Tuesday it actually happened.

Prepared for the worst

Israel does not appear to want to trigger a full-scale war and may limit its attacks – or attacks – to Hezbollah targets, experts told Al Jazeera.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military claimed responsibility for an attack in Dahiya, a southern Beirut neighborhood that Israel considers a “Hezbollah stronghold.” Israel said it had attacked a Hezbollah commander responsible for the attack on the Golan Heights.

In Beirut, however, there are fears that the violence will escalate further and that Israeli bombings could become even more extensive.

Wael Taleb, a local journalist from the Lebanese broadcaster L’Orient Today, had already convinced his family to move away from Dahiya for the next few days. His family was initially hesitant, but eventually gave in.

“It is not an easy decision to sleep outside your home, even when your life is at stake,” Taleb said, explaining his mother’s reluctance to temporarily leave her home.

“My mother’s generation is used to such situations. They are used to the fact that there is hardly any possibility that our house could be affected (by the war) because their generation has experienced so many wars,” he added.

Lina Mounzer, a Lebanese writer and commentator, noted that everyone she knew who had a “house in the mountains” – far from the areas expected to be affected, such as Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa Valley – was already moving their belongings there.

“Everyone I know has gone there and made sure that the (house) is well equipped, that the electricity is running and that they have a good relationship with the people who supply diesel to the neighborhood. But I’m not making those preparations because I have no place to go,” she said.

resignation

Back in Hamra, Ramy Taweel, a writer and translator, sat at his laptop drinking coffee in another cafe. The 50-year-old Syrian said he has lived between Lebanon and Syria for years and is used to living with the fear of war.

He said – before the Israeli attack on Dahiya – that he was unable to “predict” or “anticipate” how Israel would respond to the Golan Heights incident. He was agitated, however, saying Israel claims it cares about the 12 Druze children killed in the explosion while it continues to kill thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza.

According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Israel has killed more children in Gaza than all the children who have died in global conflicts over the past four years.

Taweel just hopes that no more civilians, especially children, will die in future attacks. As for himself, he says he is resigned to whatever happens.

“I have not made any preparations. If there is a (total) war, there will be a war,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Our people have been living in war for years.”