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It’s Wednesday, November 27 in Dahye, a district south of Beirut.
Thousands of men, women, and children are parading their vehicles and waving Lebanese and Hezbollah flags. Younger boys, armed with pistols and Kalashnikovs, cheer as they fire into the air.
After two months of shelling, a ceasefire is being celebrated. Journalists, for the first time since the beginning of the war, are invited on a ‘tour’ through the neighbourhood. Before today, this part of the city had remained inaccessible.
Dahye (also known as Dahiyeh) is one of Hezbollah’s main strongholds and, for this reason, one of the areas most affected by Israeli raids. It is also here that, on 27 September, Hassan Nasrallah, third secretary of the ‘Party of God’, was killed. Photos showing his face adorn every corner of the street.
At the heart of the celebrations, we meet Rana El Sahily, spokesperson for Hezbollah. She tells Byline Times: “Despite the grief of so many losses, for us, this is a victory day. Victory because Israel failed in invading our territory. Victory because we did not bend to their attacks, and we never surrendered. If they had continued this war, they would have lost countless resources, but to no result. That is why Israel accepted the ceasefire.
“We hope that this peace will last, even though the Israelis are not known for keeping their word. In this case, however, breaking the truce would only be to their disadvantage. They have everything to lose. For us, the reconstruction now begins. We will rebuild everything as before, even better than before”.
In these months, Beirut has been a shadow of its former self. Businesses are closed and the central streets of the ‘souq’ is abandoned. Schools, gyms, and even hotels have been converted into shelters for displaced persons. For two months, people lived with the constant sound of drones and the fear of attacks that punctually arrived every night. The latest airstrike happened only 15 minutes after the ceasefire came into effect in the very central Hamra district.
Today, people celebrate the truce, but the streets show heavy signs of devastation. Many houses, schools, and infrastructure have been completely destroyed. The air is full of dust and debris and almost unbreathable unless a protective mask is worn.
These days, hundreds of vans and cars packed with luggage crowd the streets: they are the families who are returning home. There are over a million Lebanese who have had to evacuate their homes because of the conflict.
We arrive in the neighbourhood of Chiyeh, which also had a Shiite majority. After Dahye, the worst-stricken suburb of Beirut. Sitting on a plastic chair in the middle of the ruins, we find Abu Zahra (he prefers to give us his nickname rather than his real name).
“I am the one who cleans these neighbourhoods of rubble,” he says.
“I have a small excavator, so I decided to help by volunteering. We were hit here until the day before the ceasefire. Four people died in that attack, and many others were killed and injured in the days before. The other day, as I was opening a breach in the wreckage, I heard a moan. We started digging and extracted an old man. He was buried under his house”.
As we continue walking through Chiyeh, we find what remains of the neighbourhood. Small fragments of memories have survived the bombs: toys, books, and sheets of textbooks from some of the destroyed schools.
So many, on their return home, find nothing left. Standing in front of a pile of rubble, we see two women. Until four days ago, this was their home. An apartment seven floors high is now a stack of ruins about three metres high.
One of them, the youngest, tells Byline Times: “We were bombed until one day before the cease-fire. We had to escape so quickly that we had no time to take anything with us. We have nothing left. What we own today is only what we wear”.
Among the remains, the older lady finds a family photo.
The frame is destroyed, but the picture is still intact. She cleans it, kisses it and holds it to her chest.
Today, new attacks have been reported in the south of the country, endangering this truce.
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In Rab Thalathine, in the province of Nabatye, a new IDF raid caused one death and two wounded. For Israel, these people had crossed a forbidden zone. For Hezbollah, they were just people returning to their homes.
Even though many do not believe this ceasefire can last, Beirut and all of Lebanon are trying to start a seemingly normal life again. People are helping each other rebuild their homes and donating what was lost.
They all try to overcome their strong cultural, social, and religious differences, which have always existed in this nation. They hold each other close and pray that this peace may finally be permanent.