Abu Muhammad is one of only two people still living in a 12-story residential building in Lebanon’s southern city of Tyre.
Most of the city’s 200,000 residents have fled since Israel launched devastating air raids across the country on September 23.
It was chaos. I saw women giving birth on the side of the road.... There are bodies lying in the rubble. There’s nobody to bury them.”-- Salah, who fled the town of Aabbassiyeh
“There’s no life here anymore,” said Muhammad, who is a building janitor. “Everyone is gone. Nearly all the shops are closed. There is only one bakery open.”
Israel’s ongoing air strikes targeting Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, has taken a huge toll on civilians.
Nearly 700 people have been killed and over 100,000 displaced just this week in Lebanon. Hezbollah, meanwhile, has been accused of firing some 8,000 rockets into northern Israel in the past year, uprooting around 60,000 people, and killing several dozen, including civilians. Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, although the European Union has only blacklisted its armed wing.
Scores have been killed in intense shelling and air strikes in and around Tyre, Lebanon’s fourth-largest city and one of the targets of Israel’s air campaign, residents said.
“When an air strike lands close by, I run to a nearby hospital for cover,” said Muhammad. “Otherwise, I stand guard near the entrance gate of the building so nobody tries to break in.”
Muhammad, who is in his 50s, said there is a severe shortage of fuel in the city and electricity is only available for a few hours in the evening. The prices of basic goods have skyrocketed, he said, and many people remaining in the city are relying on their emergency food supplies.
Only the thunder of shelling, the thud of bombs, and the roar of Israeli warplanes puncture the eerie silence enveloping Tyre, a coastal city along the Mediterranean Sea that is popular with vacationers, he said.
Muhammad moved to Tyre, known locally as Sur, after civil war erupted in 2011 in neighboring Syria. He sent his wife and three children back to Syria several months ago.
But Muhammad said he will remain in Tyre, despite the risks, even as tens of thousands of people frantically try to escape southern Lebanon for the relative safety of the capital, Beirut, and northern Lebanon.
The air strikes have been intense. Many people have been killed or wounded. There’s shelling all around us."-- Muhammad, a Palestinian refugee living in Tyre
“I’m already a refugee,” he said. “Where will I go? I don’t even have the means to leave.”
A bus ticket from Tyre to Beirut usually costs around $3. Now, he said, bus companies are charging up to $100 per person. A taxi costs at least $300, he said.
Escalating Conflict
Israel’s aerial bombardment of Lebanon is the deadliest since the Israel-Hezbollah war in 2006.
The two foes have traded constant cross-border strikes since Israel launched its devastating war in the Gaza Strip in October, following an unprecedented attack on Israel by the U.S.- and EU-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Hezbollah has launched rockets into Israel in solidarity with Palestinians.
Israel has intensified its attacks against Hezbollah in recent weeks. On September 17-18, suspected Israeli attacks targeting electronic devices used by members of the armed group killed dozens of people and injured thousands.
Just days later, Israel launched what some have described as one the most intense air raids in modern warfare, hitting thousands of targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut.
Israeli officials in recent days have suggested that the country is preparing for a ground invasion of Lebanon even as the United States attempts to secure a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
A massive traffic jam is seen in Sidon on September 23 as residents flee southern Lebanon amid ongoing Israeli air strikes.
'We Can’t Go Back'
As the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict escalates, ordinary Lebanese and Israelis are bearing the brunt of the violence.
Salah, an academic, fled the town of Aabbassiyeh, near Tyre, with his wife and son after their next-door neighbor’s house was flattened by an Israeli air strike.
“As I was driving out of the town, rockets and missiles were landing near us,” he said. “I saw a residential building collapse behind us.”
The drive to Beirut usually takes around one hour. But Salah’s family was on the road for nearly 30 hours, with the country’s main highway choked with thousands of cars.
“It was chaos,” Salah said. “I saw women giving birth on the side of the road. Some cars that had run out of fuel were abandoned. There were up to 10 people crammed in some cars. People were sitting on top of cars or in the trunk.”
Salah and his family are staying in a small apartment in Beirut, which has also been the target of Israeli strikes, with two other families. He does not know when he will be able to return home.
Rescuers inspect rubble at the site of an Israeli strike on a pharmacy in the southern Lebanese village of Akbiyeh on September 24.
“The worst part is that we can’t go back,” he said. “If one of our relatives is killed there, we can’t bury them. The town is empty and there are bodies lying in the rubble. There’s nobody there to bury them.”
Even as many flee Tyre and neighboring towns, some residents are unable or unwilling to leave.
Among them is Muhammad, a Palestinian refugee whose parents fled to Lebanon decades ago.
“The air strikes in Tyre have been intense,” he said. “Many people have been killed or wounded. There’s shelling all around us. There’s the constant noise of jets flying over the city.”
Despite the grave danger, Muhammad is adamant that he and his family will not leave.
“If we die, I'd rather die in my own home,” said the father of three. “Whenever we hear an air strike, we rush to the basement. We hold hands and we pray.”