Bombs on Beirut as Lebanon on the brink of definitive war

The roads were completely gridlocked and mile-long lines formed along the escape routes. It is an exodus of biblical proportions.

A rain of bombs fell over Beirut last Thursday night. A total of 11 violent explosions kept the Lebanese capital and its inhabitants awake all night long. The Israeli military claims to have leveled a Hezbollah command center, which it described as “the headquarters of Hezbollah's executive council.” 

On Friday morning, the city is practically paralyzed. There are few cars on the streets, schools are closed and there is a surreal silence for those accustomed to the vital chaos of Beirut mornings. In the small grocery stores – the dukkeni, the beating heart of neighborhood life – and in homes, everyone is glued to the TV for the latest news.

The bombardments began at 9:30 p.m. on Thursday night, following endless hours of waiting after the evacuation order arrived at 2 p.m. The neighborhoods of Jamous, Msharrafieh, Haret Hreik, Maamoura, Kafaat and Bourj el-Barajneh were hit. This is nothing new; these are the same places where the war had already taken a devastating toll in 2023 and 2024, especially in the final stages before the ceasefire signed on November 27, 2024 – an agreement Israel has since violated over 10,000 times. Nothing is new, except for the sheer scale of the operation. This time, the evacuation order covered the entirety of Dahiyeh, foreshadowing Israel's intentions: to deal a definitive, final blow against Hezbollah.

Dahiyeh is certainly the area with the highest Shiite concentration and the location of Hezbollah's base in the capital, but it is also one of the most densely populated areas of both Beirut and Lebanon, home to about 500,000 inhabitants who are wrongly being associated en masse with Hezbollah. These are mixed, working-class neighborhoods inhabited by Shiites, Sunnis, Christians and a massive number of immigrants of African descent.

When the evacuation order imposed by the Israeli military on the four municipalities that make up Beirut's southern suburbs arrived, total panic ensued. The roads were completely gridlocked and mile-long lines formed along the escape routes. It is an exodus of biblical proportions. The displaced people of Dahiyeh are now joining those fleeing from the south. In recent days, Israel ordered the evacuation of the entire area south of the Litani River, and thousands of people had already begun the journey toward the north of the country.

The state, alongside local and international NGOs, has reopened the reception centers – which were never completely decommissioned – that were used to provide relief to the 1.5 million displaced people during the first phase of this war. The current numbers are not yet final, but it is easy to project they will be just as high. Many Syrians living in Lebanon have returned to their homeland in recent hours, numbering between 30,000 and 40,000. Alongside them, a large number of Lebanese citizens have crossed the Syrian border, to the point that Damascus has tightened its border controls.

Thousands of people spent the night on the Corniche, Beirut's wide seaside promenade, waiting for better accommodations.

Since the beginning of this phase of the conflict at dawn on Monday, there have been 26 bombing runs on Beirut. Israel has intensified its bombing campaign over southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley. On Thursday, a senior Hamas official was killed along with his wife in the Palestinian refugee camp of Beddawi in the north of the country, near Tripoli. On Friday morning, Hezbollah announced it had launched missiles at northern Israel, the occupied Golan Heights and the naval base in Haifa. Clashes are raging in Khiam, the heart of the ground battle between Hezbollah and the Israeli military after the latter began its land invasion of southern Lebanon a few days ago.

The interventions of European diplomacy – first and foremost from the Élysée Palace, with French President Emmanuel Macron urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to expand the war in Iran into Lebanon as well – have proven useless. On Thursday, before the strikes on southern Beirut, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said openly that he wanted to make the area “look like Khan Younis.”

For Hezbollah, this is a war of survival. Israel's designs on southern Lebanon have been clear for quite some time. First and foremost is the disputed maritime border that determines the management of offshore natural gas drilling.

The country is currently in a state of limbo, but everyone is certain that this is a definitive war that will drastically alter the balance of power in Lebanon.

© Il Manifesto Global