The unending war of others

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On April 23, the world witnessed two starkly contrasting images. In the White House, US President Donald Trump, alongside Lebanese and Israeli representatives, extended the ceasefire for another three weeks. But back in southern Lebanon, in the small town of Al-Bissarriyeh, hundreds of mourners buried Amal Khalil, a Lebanese journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike during the ‘historic’ ceasefire.

The truce announced that day exists only in the imaginary world of superpowers. On the ground, Israel continues bombing, intense artillery shelling, detonating buildings, razing villages, and occupying swaths of terrain in southern Lebanon. In the eerie landscape, thunderous bombings echo and thick billowing clouds of black smoke drift over haunted villages.

Israel has established a 10-km-deep “security zone” often referred to as the Yellow Line inside Lebanese territory, citing the need to guard against threats from Iran-backed Hezbollah. Israel’s Defense Minister said his forces would “destroy all houses in Lebanon border villages in accordance with the model used in Rafah and Beit Hanoun.”

The truce announced that day exists only in the imaginary world of superpowers. - Owais Tohid

The truce announced that day exists only in the imaginary world of superpowers.

Lebanon, which borders Syria and Israel, has been a battleground for decades, with Israel and Hezbollah center stage. 

Caught between the armed rivalry of Iran and Israel, this beautiful country — home to one of the world’s oldest civilizations — finds itself once again on the frontlines of a volatile regional conflict following the slaying of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by US and Israeli forces as they launched their war on Iran in February.

Hundreds have died since then, with thousands injured and nearly a quarter of the population — around 1.3 million people — displaced.

On April 8, the same day a ceasefire took effect between the US and Iran, Israeli forces carried out an aerial massacre in Beirut. Within 10 minutes, several buildings were decimated and the dead and wounded lay scattered across concrete slabs and twisted metal. The city was shrouded in black smoke, destruction and terror; 357 dead and 1,200 injured. The Lebanese call it Black Wednesday — one of the deadliest days in the country’s history. Israel named........

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