No one would say that a person has passed through this place. guerra. The streets of Baalbekone of the main cities in the east of the Lebanonthey are packed. Women and children rush the last hours of the sun to do all kinds of shopping. Each and every business is open. Only those completely destroyed by Israeli missiles They do not serve the public. Life has to go on, despite fear. “But this is not going to last, we cannot trust Israel,” he acknowledges. Mariambehind the counter of a clothing store. “I am terrified, I am very afraid,” she sincerely confesses to this newspaper, fearing that this ceasefire will remain unstable and brief.
Every day of the truce, declared on November 27, Israel has attacked Lebanon. So far, there have been 248 violations of the ceasefire, most by Israel. During the first week of the agreement between Israel and Hezbollahthe aggressions of the Hebrew State killed 11 personas throughout the country of cedars. Now, in the first month of the truce, at least 30 people have died from all the violations of the agreement and some 36 have been injured throughout Lebanon. For now, the Shiite militia responded on December 2 with the launch of two projectiles that fell in open areas. No one in Baalbek trusts that this temporary peace will last the agreed 60 days.
Almost a thousand dead
Mariam spent the two months of brutal war hidden in her city. “We locked ourselves at home and we hear it all: the planes flying over, the drones attacking…”, acknowledges this young woman, whose home was free of violence. The building next to hers was not the same luck. Throughout the previous 11 months of conflict, low intensity, the Baalbek region in the Beca Valleyknown for being an important stronghold of Hezbollah, did not suffer the constant Israeli attacks that targeted the south of the country. But, after the war escalation that began on September 23, that changed tragically. Many bombings came without prior noticedevastating a large part of the area’s civilian population.
At least 940 people have been killed in the Baalbek-Hermel region and 1,520 injured, according to its governor Bachir Khodr, as a result of the 1,260 air strikes in the province. This almost thousand fatalities represents almost a quarter of the death toll announced by the Lebanese Government before the ceasefire came into force. In late October, Israeli evacuation orders forced more than 50.000 personas from Baalbek and surroundings. Maher el Jebbeh30 years old and from Baalbek, had no choice but to escape. “We went to Beirut where we had to rent a house for $800 a month and pay four months in advance,” he explains to EL PERIÓDICO, portraying the chaos he experienced.
Poverty in History
Along with Akkar, in northern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley is one of the most impoverished regions in the country. Furthermore, the arrival of syrian refugees In the last decade it has put additional pressure on the area, which has weakened its fragile infrastructure and services. The World Bank estimates that, while the poverty rate in the rest of Lebanon remains around 44%, in Baalbek it reaches 60%. “That is one of the reasons why most people here have not been able to leave, since they didn’t have money to rent another site, and, in turn, they had nothing to protect themselves from the bombs because no one knew where the drone or the plane would strike,” Maher acknowledges. “There are no words that can describe the situation that people are facing here,” he adds, in front of the ancient ruins of his city.
Baalbek has a history dating back to at least 11,000 years agobut it was in the Roman period when it truly flourished. The proof is in the many perfectly preserved temples –Jupiter, Venus and the impressive Bacchus– that Maher admires from the window of his house, the one to which he did not believe he could return. The Baalbek ruins They are one of the best preserved archaeological sites in the entire Middle East. “If Israel had the opportunity to occupy our land, it would do so, because they believe that this territory and our heritage belongs to them by divine right“Maher denounces.
Historic Hezbollah stronghold
Beyond the commercial and tourist importance of the area, the multiple yellow and green flags that crown the rubble in front of the archaeological site indicate the widespread presence of Hezbollah. It was on that plain where the resistance movement was born in 1982. In turn, the 182-kilometer-long valley, which borders to the west with Mount Lebanon and to the east with Anti-Lebanon, is a strategic corridor that connects it with its allies in Syria, Iraq and Iran. The high levels of poverty, which have increased in recent years of brutal economic crisis, have made it fertile ground for recruiting young people with few job prospects to wage resistance against Israel.
Furthermore, in the absence of government services, Hezbollah offers a extensive social welfare systemwhich has educational centers, hospitals and clinics. “I don’t believe in Hezbollah’s ideals, but I do believe I understand your cause“, defends Maher. “Israel is our enemy: they stole our land, Palestine, and killed our people, because we are arabs and we believe that we are one culture, one society” together with the Palestinians, he adds. “We will never make true peace with Israel; Even if the Government makes a deal with them, as a society, we will never do it,” defends this young architect with conviction.
“It’s the government’s job”
“We do not want to live a life condemned to perpetual war; the Lebanese people are not in favor of the war,” says Mariam, from behind the counter of the boutique in which he works. The young woman acknowledges that, in the last two months, her cousin has not dared to leave the house out of fear. But despite the fear, It’s time to face tomorrow. The World Bank, in a preliminary assessment, estimated that more than 99,000 homes have been totally or partially damaged, with an estimated cost of 2.8 billion dollars. “All the reconstruction has to be done by the Statenot the citizens, although we are already clear that this bankrupt Government will not take care of it,” says Mariam.
In Lebanon, before the war, one in three people was poor. In Baalbek, even more so. Now, that number will have increased. Therefore, the Lebanese, and, above all, those most impoverished in the Bekah Valley and Baalbek, can only wait for something similar to a miracle. “We will have to trust the generosity of others but I already told you that, if I were a millionaire, I would not invest all my money in a job that the Government has to do”, Mariam concludes without fear.
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