In a flash, Salem Nasser travel to the past. There he ran with his friends through the streets of Nabatiyathe main city of southern Lebanon, located 13 kilometers from the border with Israel. When they left class, they took their bicycles and toured the historic market, which they grew up with as the scene of their pranks. “These places become your history, your heritage, your childhood, your sweet memories”, he confesses excitedly to EL PERIÓDICO. Now they get back on the bike, but nothing is the same. Suddenly, reality hits and Salem returns to the present. “Now my eyes are full of tears and my heart is sad”, he acknowledges. In front of him are the ruins of that souk, of dozens of homes and businesses that explain his childhood. And his life. “We were children who played here and now only destruction remains”, he laments.
Nabatiye is probably the most devastated city by the Israeli bombings in the last two months. In the historic center of the southern town, devastation is the norm. “It was a very intense aggression, especially in the south,” Nasser denounces. “This area has seen many wars with Israel, but such destruction has never occurred before,” he says. “Never, never,” he insists, amazed. Beyond the loss of personal memories, those who have been able to return to Nabatiye in the first week of ceasefire They mourn with deep pain the disappearance of their shared history.
Disappearance of history
“Many of the buildings that were destroyed by Israel, the Zionist enemy, are all ancient monuments like this building, which has been here for no less than a hundred years,” he explains, while pointing out all the buildings around him. “There are stores more than a centurywith its history, its stones and its beautiful antiques,” laments Nasser. He himself has lost his business in this area, where he sold women’s accessories, just like his father and, before him, his grandfather did. More than 60 years of family business pulverized in seconds by a foreign missile. In front of his store, there are two entire blocks of rubble. A few weeks ago, there was the Ottoman-era market, built in 1910. More than a century of life and memories demolished.
The brutal attack in mid-October forced emergency services to put out the fire in 12 residential buildings and 40 shops. Today, the historic businesses lie bare, with half of their products burned and the others exposed to the harsh winter. No one makes any attempt to rebuild them. It’s not just that the lack of resources and financing be a huge obstacle to achieving it, but there is nowhere to start. “The people of Lebanon deserve more than just survival: they deserve the opportunity to rebuild their lives and livelihoods, contribute to their communities and collectively pave the way to lasting peace and development,” he said. Imran Rizathe humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon of United Nationsthis Wednesday during his visit to Nabatiye.
Death of a mayor
For the inhabitants of this Lebanese city, the vital and commercial heart of the south of the country, it will be very difficult to get back on track. The doctor Ali Kansou He spent the 64 days of the attack sleeping in the Najd hospital, on the outskirts of Nabatiye. “The war was very cruel, the bombings They did not distinguish between civilians and soldiers”, he explains to this newspaper. “Five civilians came to the hospital until a soldier arrived, so the majority of victims were civilians and the number of casualties was very large,” this anesthetist acknowledges. At 64 years old, he has been working in Lebanon for 34 years and needs more than one hand to tell all the wars he has experienced and healed. “But this was the worst war“The type of ammunition used is new for us, as is the severity of the wounds, most of them to the head,” he adds.
During these two months of attacks, more than 3,300 people have died throughout Lebanon. Among the fatalities is the mayor of Nabatiye. In mid-October, a bombing attack on the municipal building complex killed Ahmed Kahil and 16 more people, among whom were other municipal workers and some neighbors who came to look for food as part of the aid package that was being discussed at that time in the city hall. Another 52 people were injured. The Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikatiblamed this “deliberate aggression,” the first direct attack of the war against the seat of a civil authority, on “a world that deliberately keep silent about the crimes of the occupation [Israel]which encourages her to persist in her bad actions and crimes.”
“The country of laughter and smiles”
“Lebanon is a peaceful country, a country of knowledge, the country of laughter and smiles, it is the first country with culture“, notes Nasser in a monologue of love for his country that contrasts with the gray that covers the destruction around him. The only points of color that stand out among the rubble of this majority Shiite population are the yellow and green flags of Hezbollahand the portraits of their murdered leaders. Before the war, some 40.000 personas They lived in Nabatiye. The vast majority fled the city as soon as the bombs began to fall and the Israeli Army published evacuation orders aimed at the civilian population. Now, many of them have returned, although without a place to stay.
Salem is one of them. He only has half of his house left standing. His businesses have been razed and his other house in the southern suburbs of Beirut has disappeared. “Now we are like this, without clothes, without a home, having to start over from the beginning”, he laments. For now, Salem is sleeping at a relative’s house in the capital. “It is estimated that 600,000 internally displaced people are beginning to return to their homesand two-thirds of them are heading south and to the Nabatiye governorate,” said Riza. “In the south and Nabatiye there has been a overwhelming level of destructionwith tens of thousands of buildings partially or totally destroyed,” he adds. “We will not live again, although God willing, we will live for our children,” says Nasser.
The Lebanese State has been in bankruptcy and, therefore, Mikati has called on the international community to help in the reconstruction. A large part of the Lebanese population had already depended on humanitarian aid for some time. After the war of 2006the Gulf countries poured money to rebuild Lebanon, but now it seems that this aid will depend on the corrupt and inefficient local authorities carry out economic and political reforms to revive the country. “We are a people like the rest of the people on earth,” defends Dr. Kansou. “We want peace and we want stability; We are not terrorists or fanatics, just we are a people that loves life”, he concludes.
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