Relentless Israeli air strikes turn Beirut suburb into ghost town

Hezbollah gives journalists a rare tour showing destruction in the capital's southern suburbs, where its leader was killed

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Hours after an air strike hit an apartment complex in the Chyah neighbourhood of Beirut's southern suburbs, thick smoke stubbornly hangs in the air, joined by fresh wisps from the crater left behind by the Israeli bombing. After the late-night strike, which levelled four residential buildings, people look on in shock and concern.

“I don't have the words to describe how I feel when I see the destruction,” an electrician said, staring with obvious emotion at the smouldering site surrounded by heaps of mangled concrete and rebar. She had arrived to repair cables damaged in the blast but found more destruction than she imagined.

She told The National she had heard voices seemingly coming from under the rubble in the morning, sparking fears that the concierge of the buildings and his family were trapped. As Lebanon's Health Ministry has not yet released a death toll, their fate remains unknown.

Residents said the concierge’s family was the only one left in the building, as the area was emptied after Israel began its deadly air campaign against Lebanon, which has particularly targeted the south, the east and densely populated southern parts of Beirut.

Hundreds of journalists were invited to a rare tour of Beirut's southern suburbs organised by Hezbollah on Wednesday to view the destruction. The militant group holds sway in Chyah and neighbouring Dahieh but the area is also home to thousands of civilians. Dahieh has been almost entirely closed to foreigners since Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's charismatic leader, was killed in an Israeli strike on Friday.

Israel says it is attacking Hezbollah infrastructure to allow the safe return of tens of thousands of its citizens displaced by fighting between the two, which have been exchanging fire amid the Gaza war.

About a week ago, Israel intensified border skirmishes into a major air campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Since then, Israel's relentless bombardment has killed more than 1,000 people, according to figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Israel launched new strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs early on Wednesday, with large explosions heard around the capital. Throughout the night, the Israeli army issued warnings, ordering residents to leave areas near “Hezbollah facilities".

The residential complex in Chyah was on a warning map published by an army spokesman on X, formerly Twitter. About an hour after his post, Israel began shelling.

“It felt like an earthquake,” Hussein Zein, 52, told The National. He left Chyah a week ago for neighbouring Ain El Remmaneh, a Christian area spared from bombardment.

Lebanese officials estimate that more than one million people may have been displaced from their homes. Streets in the heart of the capital are filled with families who fled dangerous areas in a hurry, with nowhere to seek refuge.

“[The Israeli army] says you must leave, but they don’t even give you time, and they struck right after," Mr Zein said. "These are unjust attacks against humanity and civilians, they are attacking innocents indiscriminately, claiming there are weapons among us."

Residents are shocked to see destruction and violence in the heart of once-busy areas, annihilating any sense of safety.

“There used to be a pharmacy here,” Mr Zein said. Google Maps still shows a pin marking the pharmacy at the location, but nothing remains.

Ghost town

Mr Zein was among passers-by gathered on Wednesday at the site of the attack in Chyah along with the journalists for the Hezbollah tour.

The whole area has been turned into a ghost town, with the ominous sound of drones buzzing over the heads of the few remaining residents. All of the shops are closed and the pavements are covered in glass shards from shattered windows. A smell of burning hangs in the air, seeping into the fabric of one's clothes.

Wissam, 33, said he got his family out of Dahieh safely, but chose to stay himself.

"These are residential areas," he said, pointing to a destroyed building on which pictures of Mr Nasrallah were hung.

“Everyone is upset. These are our streets, our neighbourhoods. We all know each other. They are destroying Dahieh, but we rebuild and we will return. And inshallah, we will win.”