Israel carried out a wave of air strikes on Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold on Wednesday night, destroying a residential complex. FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris-Trent reports from southern Lebanon. Sharon Gaffney speaks to Salah Hijazi, deputy chief at the political desk at 'L’Orient-Le Jour', who says that Lebanese see Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu as 'uncontrollable' and that he is not interested in a ceasefire deal.
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This is Apropos. We'll first tonight to Lebanon, where Israel has carried out at least 10 separate
00:09airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, destroying six buildings, including a residential complex
00:15and an office used by a pro-Iranian broadcaster. Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli strikes pounded
00:21an ancient coastal city which boasts a UNESCO World Heritage Site, leaving swathes of its
00:27centre in ruins. Our senior reporter, Catherine Norris-Trent, sent this report from southern
00:33Lebanon.
00:38The centre of Nabatea in southern Lebanon lies in ruins, devastated by Israeli airstrikes.
00:46Hussein and his civil defence team are helping the few residents who remain.
00:49I thought there were people distributing food. We used to get help from the council. God
01:17will help us. I came to fetch my son and bring him to Beirut, but even there it's
01:22difficult. Everything is targeted now.
01:26This is what's left of Nabatea's marketplace. Forty shops turned to rubble in Israeli airstrikes
01:32the previous Saturday.
01:34Look, it was a market. Everyone knows this place. Everyone knows what was here. There
01:51were just shops, nothing else.
01:58The interview is cut short when a warplane flies overhead, bombing a building not far
02:04away. The city's mayor among more than a dozen people killed, local authorities say, during
02:11a meeting to coordinate humanitarian aid.
02:22You can see this is food. There's hummus, oil, pasta, cans of tuna, all the things people
02:29need. I'm not afraid for myself. I've left my wife and child behind so I can help the
02:36people stranded here.
02:39Look, this is medicine. Are these weapons or missiles?
02:48The council said it struck Hezbollah targets.
02:53This place has already been bombed. Could it be targeted again? Yes. You have to be
02:58ready for anything because they're bombing the whole town. Nothing is safe. Nothing is
03:03protected. As you can hear now, as always, the Israeli air force and drones are flying
03:08over Nabatea. The situation here is critical.
03:13It's too dangerous to linger. Hussein and his team leave to head to another bombsite.
03:19Later that day, they were injured during a rescue mission.
03:23There's been an exodus from the town of Nabatea. Over the past two weeks, there's been pretty
03:28much daily bombing. In the time we were filming here, there were six strikes.
03:34Catherine Norris-Trent reporting.
03:36For more on the situation in Lebanon, we're joined now by Beirut-based journalist Salah
03:42Hizaji, deputy chief at the political desk at L'Oréal Le Jour. Thank you so much for being
03:47with us on the programme this evening. Further attacks tonight, particularly on southern
03:53suburbs of Beirut. We're hearing that at least six buildings have been levelled there.
03:58What is the latest?
04:03What we know so far is that two strikes were performed without prior notice, which might
04:09mean that it could be an assassination attempt. The following strikes were performed after
04:17evacuation orders were published on Twitter, as it's been happening now for three weeks.
04:29We know that one of the strikes has killed one man and injured five, including one child.
04:35But so far, that's all we know. We still don't have information about who could have been the
04:39targets of these attacks.
04:42And we're watching smoke rise as you speak to us over Beirut. Also today, we saw another front
04:49opened in Lebanon. Israel firing on tires, sparking a fresh exodus from what was once
04:56a vibrant coastal city. What is the latest there? Has the city been entirely evacuated at this stage?
05:01Evacuation orders were published for a good half of the city, a very densely populated part of
05:10the city, close to historic monuments that are UNESCO World Heritage Sites. And it has sparked
05:19a new wave of exodus towards Saida and Beirut. Saida is one of the biggest cities in the country.
05:24It's also well known because it's a stronghold of Nabiha Birri, the president of parliament.
05:30It's the first time that it's targeted that way since the beginning of the war. It has been
05:35targeted before, but not in a massive way. And no evacuation orders were published before to
05:39its residents. So it does feel like it could be a message to the speaker of parliament.
05:45At least that's the idea that's circulating here in Beirut.
05:49And when you say message to parliament, what do you mean by that? If you could just elaborate
05:53a little bit on that?
05:54The speaker of parliament, Nabiha Birri, is the main negotiator in the name of Hezbollah.
06:02And recently, two days ago, he had a meeting with the American mediator, Amos Hoxhaim.
06:09He refused the Israeli conditions for a ceasefire, which reportedly included a
06:16large margin to be able to perform operations in the south in case Israel suspects a new,
06:24renewed Hezbollah presence there. He refused these conditions. And lots of analysts here in Beirut
06:31are saying that the attacks on Amal strongholds, strongholds of the party of Nabiha Birri, could be
06:39messages to pressure him into showing more flexibility in the negotiations.
06:51And Hezbollah has said tonight that it's hit a military factory in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
06:56The cleric also, who was expected to take over as chief of the group, confirming also that he
07:02has been killed in an Israeli strike several weeks ago. What kind of an impact is that going
07:06to have on the group? How much of a blow is this to Hezbollah?
07:13What we know so far is that after the death of Hassan Nasrallah, followed by the death of
07:20Hashem Safieddin, who was his designated successor,
07:23Hezbollah is now managed in a very direct way by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
07:29And it could be a temporary arrangement before Hezbollah is able to restructure itself,
07:39because it lost basically its entire senior leadership, including a very influential figure.
07:48Sorry for cutting across you, Salah, but how are people in Lebanon reacting to all of this? How
07:53much anger is there against Hezbollah for what we're seeing happening in Beirut and elsewhere?
07:59I think there are two dynamics that are kind of opposed. You have one dynamic, and a lot of
08:08people, even among Hezbollah's popular base, saying Hezbollah should not have participated
08:14in the war in Gaza. It should not have launched attacks on Israel. And it had led us to a war
08:23whose goal is to defend Iran and its interests and not the interests of Lebanon. So that's
08:28one dynamic. But there's also another dynamic that also exists among people who are not
08:35necessarily pro-Hezbollah. Many moderates or many people who even oppose Hezbollah
08:39are very angry at the civilian death toll that is very high and the massive destruction they are
08:46seeing. And therefore, they look at Hezbollah as the only group that can defend Lebanon from
08:56Israel. So you have these two competing dynamics, and we don't know which of these is stronger.
09:02I guess we'll only know at the end of the war.
09:05Sorry again, Salah. Israel is intensifying its campaign both in northern Gaza and in Lebanon.
09:10All of this coming as the US Secretary of State has just been in Israel. Is he succeeding,
09:15do you believe, in putting any pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu? How is all of this being
09:19viewed in Beirut? In Beirut, the main idea is that
09:24Benjamin Netanyahu is not interested in any kind of deal and is basically uncontrollable.
09:30For example, a few days ago, the US Secretary of Defense said that the US is observing
09:42Israel and that they expect the Israelis to show some restraint around Beirut.
09:47The prime minister of Lebanon also said the same night that he received guarantees from the US
09:54that the Israelis will stop bombing the surroundings of the capital, or maybe at
10:00least just do it less frequently. And basically the same night after these two statements,
10:06Israel restarted bombing Beirut and it hit massively around the capital. So yeah, the
10:13main idea people have here is that the Israelis are not interested in a deal and really no one
10:20can stop them. How serious is the humanitarian situation at this point? We saw in the report
10:25that we played just before coming to you, people desperately searching for bread. More than a
10:30million people have been displaced. What is the situation currently for them?
10:36It's extremely difficult. Lebanon was hit by an economic crisis years before the beginning of the
10:44war and it was already struggling before the war has started. The escalation happened in a way that
10:49was more or less unexpected. Hospitals were not necessarily prepared. Shelters were not prepared.
10:59Now you have many people on the streets. I'd say the most fortunate among the displaced people are
11:06now sheltered in schools and with really basic services being provided, food being provided in
11:12the form of aids from organizations and NGOs. And that's the luckiest among the displaced.
11:19Many people are sleeping on the streets, on the corniche. So yeah, it's a very difficult
11:24situation. It's also creating a lot of pressure on access to services in safer areas like the
11:30capital or Saida, for example, where you have an enormous influx of people which creates a lot of
11:38pressure on, for example, food, rent, even waste management. Salah, thank you so much for that.
11:45We'll have to leave it there, I'm afraid. That is Salah Hijazi,
11:48Deputy Chief at the Political Desk of L'Oréal Le Jour. Thank you so much for that.