Israel moves deep into Lebanon Valley, causing chaos and destruction

Samir El Chekieh drove an ambulance as sirens blared of the most recent Israeli airstrikes in El Karak, in Lebanon’s jap Bekaa Valley.

The 32-year-old Lebanese Civil Protection Power (CDF) firefighter and paramedic solely slept a couple of hours final night time. It was already midday and he hadn’t had breakfast but.

Because the struggle between Israel and Shia Muslim Hezbollah escalated, the women and men of the Civil Protection Forces have had little relaxation and have been making ready for mass casualty incidents daily.

This text accommodates graphic descriptions

Samir stated this was very completely different from the final struggle with Israel in 2006. “We’re not finishing up that type of airstrikes. Just lately, a hearth station was attacked and a church within the south and our humanitarian colleagues have been killed.

SCDF workers stated an growing variety of civilians, together with girls and youngsters, have been being killed and injured whereas taking part in rescue operations.

The struggle between Israel and Hezbollah is spreading deeper and wider throughout Lebanon.

The extraordinary bombing marketing campaign has unfold far past the nation’s southern border villages and the capital Beirut, reaching cities within the fertile Bekaa and the historic metropolis of Baalbek, a largely Shia area the place Hezbollah was based. Assaults additionally elevated within the port cities of Sidon and Tire.

Israel says it targets solely Hezbollah fighters, weapons and infrastructure. Since escalating its marketing campaign in opposition to the militant group, Israel estimates it has destroyed two-thirds of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile stockpile.

However Hezbollah continues to fireside rockets into Israel daily.

The BBC spent two weeks with Civil Protection Power personnel within the Bekaa Valley, which stretches east to the Syrian border. Visiting the location of an Israeli assault requires permission from Hezbollah.

Throughout that point, the quantity and frequency of strikes within the area elevated dramatically.

In keeping with official figures, Israel launched greater than 100 assaults on October 28, and 160 folks have been killed in Bekaa up to now week alone. The Lebanese authorities doesn’t distinguish between combatants and civilians in its knowledge.

Samir and his males arrived within the Shia village of El Kharak to seek out chaos and destruction—the air was thick with smoke and dirt.

Earlier, they heard a powerful explosion at their base within the close by metropolis of Zahle and noticed a plume of smoke rising within the distance from their balcony. They jumped on fireplace vans and ambulances and headed there.

A girl in a burqa sat on the sidewalk and begged to be let into the smoldering ruins of an house constructing, however males urged her to not transfer. That is too harmful and Israel might launch a second air strike.

The primary physique they discovered was that of a person, knocked to the bottom by the explosion.

There are survivors underneath the floorboards of the house, and Samir goes deep into the ruins. He wasn’t carrying protecting plastic gloves as a result of the hearth was nonetheless blazing inside, so when he discovered a toddler he might really feel the bones shattering underneath his fingertips. When he rigorously picked up the kid, he discovered that the kid was solely half a physique.

“The primary sufferer I discovered was a toddler. I did not know if it was a boy or a woman,” he informed me later. “Sorry to clarify. But it surely’s coming from the abdomen and above – there’s nothing from the abdomen and beneath.

Prior to now, CDF workers have acquired calls asking them to evacuate their places. They think about themselves to be from the Israelites. No such name got here that day, so Samir and others dug deep into the rubble for an hour.

Finally they discovered a 10-year-old lady nonetheless alive. She informed rescuers that her eight-month-old brother, Mohammed, was beside her.

“After that, we began listening to a toddler screaming,” Samir stated.

By means of a small hole within the rubble, they discovered the trapped boy attempting to maneuver his legs. Rescuers might see his child garments and a blue sock. They painstakingly cleared the particles round him, and he was gently held in Samir’s arms and carried to security. Mohammed’s household stated he suffered a head damage and was being handled in Iraq.

The CDF works throughout Lebanon’s sectarian divide. Zahle is a predominantly Christian city dominated by the statue of the Virgin Mary, which is 54m above the highest of the mountain. He’s a Christian and the pinnacle of operations at Zahle Station. , it doesn’t discriminate.

“We do not ask the gender of the sufferer. We do not ask if he’s black or white. We do not ask if he’s Christian or Muslim. We’re humanitarians,” Samir stated.

The United Nations estimates that a minimum of one baby was killed and 10 injured daily in October in Israeli assaults. These losses, mixed with the colleagues killed within the strike, have been taking their toll on Samir and his males.

Practically 24 hours after they left the Karak website, a second Israeli assault destroyed the remainder of the house complicated.

Within the night, Hezbollah was nonetheless firing rockets from close by hillsides, focusing on Israel. A salvo of a minimum of six projectiles was fired, sparking a bush fireplace close to Zahle.

Within the city of Khodor, a Hezbollah flag was planted on the ruins of one of many many buildings flattened by Israeli bombs. Youngsters’s toys are organized at its base. A big purple Shia flag fluttered within the wind close by – virtually the one sound within the largely deserted city.

Jawad Hamzeh, his head bandaged, leads me by way of the ruins of his residence.

Three of his daughters have been killed within the assault, together with 24-year-old pregnant Nada. He held up a legislation guide from one other daughter, who was learning to be a lawyer.

There are not any militants right here, he stated. “The place is the missile? Did you see it?” he requested.

Iran-backed Hezbollah started attacking Israel on October 8, 2023, in solidarity with its ally Hamas, which had launched a devastating assault on Israel the day earlier than. Months of cross-border exchanges adopted, after which, in late September, Israel assassinated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and subsequently launched a floor invasion.

Hezbollah is dedicated to destroying Israel, however it’s greater than only a militant group. It’s Lebanon’s strongest political drive and a social motion that serves as a bulwark for Lebanon’s long-discriminated Shiite neighborhood in opposition to different sects within the nation.

Tens of hundreds of Israelis have been displaced by the year-long struggle. By attacking Hezbollah on a number of fronts, Israel hopes to weaken the group and permit its folks to return residence.

Though the USA has led ceasefire negotiations, neither aspect seems keen to concede.

On October 30, the Israeli army issued an evacuation order in Baalbek, Bekaa metropolis. The United Nations referred to as this “the most important pressured operation that Lebanon has skilled in a single day” for the reason that starting of the battle. As many as 150,000 folks fled one other Israeli assault inside hours.

There, not removed from the majestic Roman ruins and their towering Temple of Bacchus, I met Hussein Nassereldine, 42, whose residence had been destroyed in an Israeli assault the night time earlier than.

“No terrorists or dangerous guys reside right here,” he stated. “The individuals who reside listed below are respectable folks,” he stated of the house of households who fled Beirut through the 1982 civil struggle, together with his personal. “We have been born right here, we reside right here, we’re right here to remain and we is not going to go away right here,” he stated.

As I left, males with picks and shovels have been inching by way of the rubble, and Hussein was making ready to pitch a tent on the stays of his residence.

At Dar Amal hospital outdoors town, the injured are recovering from Baalbek’s deadliest day. In keeping with the native governor, of the 63 folks killed, two-thirds have been girls and youngsters. Israel stated it hit 110 targets linked to Hezbollah.

In an empty room with solely screams, three-year-old Selin reached out his little hand for consolation. However there was nobody there. She suffered burns to her face, a damaged leg and accidents to her groin and aspect. Her mom, father, two sisters and brother have been all killed in Israeli air strikes, leaving her heartbroken and alone.

Throughout the corridor within the intensive care unit, two-year-old Kayan Smeha suffered a fractured cranium. His mom, Najat, 24, kissed him gently on the cheek and held him to calm him down.

“He is nonetheless panicking,” she informed me. “He’d in all probability rerun the scene like I did. I might deal with it, however he is so little, he cannot.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, however she resisted.

“I cry as a result of I fear about my kids. But when they assume they’ll destroy us, they’re flawed. If I’ve to, I’ll sacrifice my son, my husband, my father, my mom, me ‘s sister,” Najat stated.

“The dying of a beloved one is painful, however no harder than being humiliated. We’ll maintain on to our beliefs and traditions till dying.

The solar rises after a chilly night time on the small CDF station between orchards and vineyards within the village of Faizul. Seasonal temperatures are dropping right here and most displacement shelters in Lebanon are full.

Samir got here and I requested him how he handled what he noticed.

“Some photographs are etched in our minds,” he stated, including that they by no means go away.

He relied closely on his religion.

“Whenever you attempt to maintain a [person] Keep alive and that will provide you with the power to maintain going,” he stated.

“That is God-given power and we’ll nonetheless do our job. Even when we’re instantly focused, we are saying right here in Lebanon that God will maintain us protected and we think about God that He’ll maintain us protected.