Following the airstrike that hit a football field in Majdal Shams, a town on the Golan Heights, on Saturday 27 July, killing twelve children, the fear of a dizzying degeneration of the clash between Lebanon and Israel is taking root more and more.
"Saturday certainly marked the beginning of a deeper escalation than before," comments Fadi Bejani, our colleague who lives in Tripoli and coordinates local projects. "The south of the country remains the main target, but in the meantime several warnings from Israel threaten a bombing of Beirut."
Yesterday these threats came true: an Israeli raid hit the southern suburbs of the capital, destroying an eight-story building and damaging the nearby hospital.
The attack hits a Lebanon that is now tired, devastated by a deep crisis and for months poised between a difficult balance and a war that looms on the horizon every day. The continuous alert and the constant specter of a state of emergency have so tested the fortitude of Lebanese citizens that they have altered the physiognomy of what they perceive as normality, wearing it down little by little.
"The problem," explains Fadi, "is that we are no longer able to perceive the reality of the danger, to distinguish a false alarm from a concrete threat. We have been living this same situation for ten months. It's as if we were addicted to the state of alarm: every month there are two or three days in which we receive some threat, and then the embassies announce the same things, the airport cancels some flights, after which we start again."
"The general perception is not that of a country petrified by fear: of course, nothing is stable, and we feel within us the awareness that we could be victims of a bombing at any time; But here we try to go on with our lives, not to stop living for fear of dying."
This morning, however, concern is also felt under the defenses of habit: "Most of us did not sleep last night, because we were waiting for a response from Hezbollah. Nothing happened; Maybe he will be there tonight, or maybe tomorrow. No one knows."
One of the concerns that arises in the aftermath of the attack is the fear of a new and deeper isolation of the country, and the consequent worsening of the economic and social crisis: "After the crash of the missile we were automatically left without fuel. For fear that people, panicking, would attack the gas stations to try to fill up, all the distributors in the city rushed to close their doors and block sales."
"We will most likely have an increase in the price of fuel, and medicines, and other goods. I think this will be the main problem: the economic and social aspect, our daily lives." Fadi is not only worried about the outbreak of an open war, he is above all worried about the possible immediate consequences that will inevitably fall on the civilian population: "There will be a shortage of goods, even basic necessities such as medicines, and if prices rise further it will be the coup de grace for the Lebanese economy".
This is why it is important not to give up, but to continue to do everything possible to help people: "We cannot stop. We will not let this whole situation force us to stop living or hoping. We continue to carry out support and assistance activities: in these days I will be busy with the distribution of medicines and first aid kits at the medical dispensary in Tripoli and Tyre".
Field support will play a key role in addressing the possible consequences of this tense situation: our medical dispensary will try to ensure access even to medicines that will be difficult to find, or whose price could become prohibitive. Through the dispensary and the Emergency Center we will continue to provide medical and psychological assistance, in the hope that the escalation will stop and that the danger of an open war will not materialize.
