UZAI (Lebanon): The men walked sombrely past the skeletons of bombed buildings, shards of broken glass and charred metal crunching under their feet.
A day after Israel pounded areas south of Beirut, the fishermen of Uzai came to inspect the damage to the boats in their port, in the mainly Shia southern suburb of Beirut.
Standing on scorched green fishing nets and blue ropes, Abu Mohammed looked in disbelief at the disfigured port and the 700 boats that had been wrecked by the attack.
“God help us, we’ll have to start from scratch,” he told his son Mohammed.
The pair are originally Palestinian. The father fled Gaza in 1948 to find refuge in Lebanon. But now everything they owned in Lebanon, a home overlooking the port and two fishing boats, has been destroyed by the Israeli raids.
“We’re being bombed here and my uncles are being bombed in Gaza. It’s coming at us from everywhere,” said the 25 year-old Mohammed referring to Israel’s twin offensive in Gaza which has killed 168 people since June 25.
The Jewish state’s air, land and sea assault on Lebanon, which began on July 12 following the capture of two of its servicemen by members of Hezbollah group, has crippled the country by destroying much of its infrastructure.
As well as the raids on Uzai port which left a Lebanese soldier dead, Lebanon’s main ports of Beirut, Tyre and Sidon have also been largely destroyed.
Imad Dajani, his wife and their two children were woken up in the middle of night by the Uzai port strike. Terrified, they packed into their little Fiat and fled for the mountains.
He came back on Saturday to see what was left of his boat “Adnan”. Like many of the fishermen in the tiny port, Imad is originally from south Lebanon.
Uzai and its neighbouring suburbs were once luxury beaches where Beirut’s well-to-do came to tan and socialise. After Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, many southern Lebanese fled to the suburbs of the capital and set up shop in Uzai and the neighbouring areas close to Hezbollah strongholds, devastatingly pounded by Israel.—AFP
