Nabatieh’s centuries-old market became a mountain of smoldering rubble after an Israeli bombing on Saturday, but its inhabitants still remember the commercial heart of this southern city. Lebanonnow a victim of the war between Israel e Hezbollah.
Between collapsed store walls, columns of smoke and piles of charred rubble, rescue teams work hard.
So far, the attack has left eight injured, according to provisional figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Some onlookers watch in horror at the damage caused by Israeli bombing to this Ottoman-era market. The attack occurred at 8:15 pm on Saturday 13th, local time, 2:15 pm Brasilia, according to the official Lebanese news agency.
Tareq Sadaqa still can’t believe his eyes: “It’s as if an earthquake destroyed the market. Everything was destroyed, even the little bistro where we used to have coffee in the morning,” he tells AFP.
The exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which began a year ago on the border, had not changed the routine in the commercial heart of Nabatieh.
However, the start, three weeks ago, of the Israeli ground operation in Lebanon left more than a million people displaced, mainly in the south of the country, a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Islamist movement.
Those who remained feared approaching Nabatieh in the face of incessant Israeli shelling. The characteristic hubbub of the market was reduced to silence.
“Nabatieh is like our mother”
Nothing remains of the labyrinth of clothing and jewelry stalls and small canteens, frequented for decades by shoppers near this city, located just 13 kilometers from the border with Israel.
“There are no words to describe what we see, how sad to see that people have lost everything,” adds Sadaqa, unable to hold back her tears.
Despite everything, he guarantees that he will not leave the prosperous city, known for its shops, hospitals and universities.
“Nabatieh is like our mother, so I stay”, he said, one day after the worst bombing against the city, which until then had been hit once, almost without causing damage.
Amid the desolation, a tree stands with its leaves still green, which miraculously was not hit.
“We are going to die here”
Helmi Jaber laments the fate of the neighborhood that until Friday night was “the most beautiful, with the best market”.
Now, he claims: “We are all afraid of another bombing, (the Israelis) are carrying out a scorched earth policy in Nabatieh and no one is safe.”
“What about our leaders who travel and go to big hotels? Are they going to help us?”, he ironizes, without hiding his bitterness, in a country that has been facing calamities for years, including the economic collapse of the State, political-financial scandals and repression of protests.
Lebanon has been the scene of several traumatic conflicts: the endless civil war (1975-1990), the Israeli invasion and siege of Beirut in 1982, the war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.
Ali Taha, 63 years old, calls the centuries-old market his “home”, as he endlessly evokes his memories there.
“We were born here, we will stay here and we will die here”, he insists.
