Maguy Chebli, owner of the Comfort Hotel in Beirut – partially destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Wednesday – was visibly angry as she stepped through the rubble of the second floor.
“They’re worse than each other,” she muttered, referring to Israel and Hezbollah – the two sides in a major war Lebanon says it has been unwillingly dragged into. “Two sides of the same coin.”
Overnight, the worst fears of Lebanon’s people were realised as Israel attacked residential locations outside areas where Hezbollah traditionally holds sway, prompting fears among Lebanese that, from now, no community is shielded from Israeli strikes.
As well as the Comfort Hotel, in a mostly Christian suburb of Beirut, Israel overnight attacked several residential buildings in religiously mixed villages of Baalbek, in north-eastern Lebanon, and the predominantly Druze area of Aley.
“I would never have imagined this would have happened to us,” Ms Chebli said. The hotel, which is less than a kilometre from the presidential palace, was sheltering about 13 families displaced by the war. It is also the first strike on a Christian-majority area since Hezbollah joined the war against the US and Israel in support of Iran on Monday.
“We all knew some of them, and checked their IDs, these were families, mothers and children, elderly people, I would never have imagined they could be targets,” she said. “We sheltered them because it was our duty, it’s a humanitarian matter.”
Israeli strikes have displaced tens of thousands in Lebanon. With shelters full and rent prices exorbitant, many struggle to find a place to stay, and are left to sleep in the streets.
Standing in front of the hotel, its stairs stained with blood and littered with shards of glass, she struggled to make sense of the attack. The only casualty, she said, is a young woman, who has been working at the hotel for years. “I’m afraid she might not survive,” she said.
On the floor, shattered by the blast, the families’ belongings mixed with debris.
Israeli tactics
During the 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel, The National established a pattern of Israeli strikes on buildings housing displaced people in predominantly non-Shiite areas of Lebanon – far from the front lines of the war. It made locals cautious about hosting displaced Shiite Muslims out of fear they could be potential targets.
Ms Chebli said she will not let the fear take over, and refuses to conflate Hezbollah with the whole Shiite community. “Many of our friends are Shiite, we are all victims of the regional conflict,” she said.
Observers said that Israel has deliberately attempted to sow discord in a country still fractured by its 15-year civil war, where coexistence between communities remains fragile.
Today, that fear is mixed with significant anger. Lebanon once again finds itself caught in the middle of a war between the two after almost a year and a half of relative stability.
“This is a place of happiness, of tourism, and it was transformed in a second to a place of death and war,” said Pierre Abou Assi, a MP for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian party staunchly opposed to Hezbollah.
Mr Abou Assi, who was visiting the hotel after the strike, denounced Hezbollah as “a proxy for Iran“. Hezbollah’s intervention has been widely condemned across the Lebanese political spectrum, prompting the Lebanese government to ban Hezbollah military and security activities.
He blamed the Iran-backed group for giving Israel a pretext to attack Lebanon, and dragged the whole country into chaos.
“Of course we consider Israel as an enemy, but they also see Hezbollah as such, so why would an enemy like Israel spare any region?” he said.
Ms Chebli said she was resentful of Hezbollah’s reckless move, which made all Lebanese hostage of a war they never wanted. “We’re all victims of a regional conflict, but yet we have nothing to do with it.”
