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Sidon's coastline is relatively empty and sombre on Tuesday evening, in comparison to its usual familial mood. It is the day after the Israeli army called on all holidaymakers and “anyone using boats for fishing or any other use” to avoid the coast south of Lebanon’s Awali River.
Most cafes and street vendors on the normally bustling seaside corniche have shut down. Some couples and families walk along the pavement. The fishing boats on the pier are all docked in a neat row and a few fishermen have stayed behind to mend their nets.
Rawad, a corn and confectionery seller on the corniche, told The National that crowds had thinned out after the Israeli army’s warning but that “people started coming back to the seaside tonight”.
“Nothing has happened, they haven’t hit inside [Sidon], so there’s no reason to stop our lives,” he said.
The coastal, Muslim-majority city has little nightlife and communion along the beachfront is among Sidon’s staple night-time attractions. It has also, save for a few assassinations, largely been spared from Israel's escalated bombardment across most of Lebanon, which has killed about 1,500 people in the past three weeks.
Rawad said there was nothing to fear because Israel typically strikes predominantly Hezbollah-controlled areas. Sidon, a major city commonly known as the “gateway to the south” – where Hezbollah holds vast control – is not considered an operational base for the Iran-backed group.
Lebanese Sunni movements and Palestinian factions hold sway in the Sunni-majority city. Hezbollah has dominance further south, where the Israeli army in early October declared a ground invasion of Lebanon that intends to create a 30km buffer between Israel and the Lebanese group. Still, Israel has not stepped away from strikes on areas that host Hezbollah-allied Sunni parties such as the Islamic Group and Hamas.
Israel’s order for residents to stay away from southern Lebanese shores effectively severed a third of Lebanon’s coast from the rest of the country.
“For your safety, refrain from being in the sea or on the beach from now until further notice,” said Israeli army official Col Avichai Adraee on X on Monday night. “Being on the beach and boat movements in the area of the Awali River line southward pose a danger to your life.”
Since Israel escalated its aerial bombardment of Lebanon and announced a ground invasion, its military has issued many similar orders for residents to flee the south. So far, it has forcibly evicted residents in more than 100 southern villages, sending them north of the Awali River.
But it is the first time since the war began that displacement orders have reached Sidon’s shores.
“Israel is trying to cause sectarian strife by scaring the population of Saida away from the coast,” Rawad said, using the Arabic name for the city. “They’re scaring a Sunni-majority city because they want us to turn our backs on Hezbollah. But we’re not scared. And we’re not going anywhere.”
‘No plan to move'
The war has already displaced about 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government, and killed more than 2,119 since October 8 last year, when the cross-border conflict between Hezbollah and Israel began.
For many residents of Sidon who spoke to The National, such as fisherman Hassan Salim Baydawi, Hezbollah was a moot point. The Iran-backed group may have entangled Lebanon in a war “that we shouldn't have to shoulder on our own”, and it may be hitting his livelihood, but he is not planning on being displaced from his hometown anytime soon.
He recalled his experience under the previous Israeli invasions of south Lebanon. Mr Baydawi was 11 years old and already a fisherman in 1982, when Israel first invaded. In July 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah were at war and the Sidonian coast was off limits for 33 days, he was 35. However, he remains unfazed about his experiences.
After it invaded and occupied south Lebanon in 1982, “the Israeli army was in Sidon for three years, but we kept working”, he said. Despite the restrictions imposed on civilians along the coast, “all we had to do to go out fishing was get permits from them”.
In 1985, the Israeli military withdrew from Sidon to southern Lebanon. It maintained a self-declared “security zone” that ended with Israel’s withdrawal in 2000 after years of guerrilla attacks by Hezbollah.
But the 2006 war was worse for Mr Baydawi. During that war, Israel imposed a month-long naval blockade of the Lebanese coast that not only prevented fishermen from working but restricted the movement of goods and people by sea.
The prospect of Israeli bombardment or the arrival of troops in Sidon does not frighten Mr Baydawi, but the thought of unemployment does. Already, he told The National, Lebanon’s army intelligence agency has banned fishermen from going out to sea to ensure residents’ safety after Israel’s threats on south Lebanon’s coast.
Fishing is a vital economic activity for many in Sidon and along the coast, with an Israeli blockade potentially further restricting livelihoods already strained by Lebanon's economic near-collapse. “We’re fishermen. If we don’t set sail every day we don’t eat,” Mr Baydawi said.
But he doesn’t see himself leaving Sidon even if Israel were to target the coastal areas of the city. For him, it is just a matter of waiting out the war and hoping for the best.
“If we die, we die,” he said. “It’s better to die at home than to be humiliated by displacement.”
