HARET HREIK: Just a day after the end of an offensive that reduced Beirut’s southern suburbs to rubble, Hezbollah was back in force as though its grip on its urban stronghold had never slipped.
In the southern suburb of Haret Hreik, Hezbollah was on Tuesday losing no time in helping victims of the Israeli bombardment, assessing damage, removing debris, and finding homes as it seeks to steal a march over the government in the reconstruction effort.
Teams of young and old men were handed specific tasks and dispersed around the suburbs. They worked diligently passed residents strolling leisurely through the glass, metal and cement.
Young tattooed men flashed victory signs at each other. Two men stood on their damaged second-floor balcony, waving and shouting at their neighbours below. Others, who hadn’t seen each other since they fled the heavily pounded area, hugged warmly, congratulating each other on having survived.
A piercing ululation broke the muffled noise of the crowds when an elderly woman finally found her destroyed house .
“It’s all for the resistance,” she said. “All for Seyyed (Hassan) Nasrallah,” she said, referring to Hezbollah’s leader.
The rumble of every bulldozer gave new life to settled dust.
The bus stop at the entrance of the suburb was teeming with eager passengers, the tea vendors are back, families packed in cars are blaring recordings of speeches by Nasrallah on their car radio.
Inside the suburb, a primarily residential area, people inspected their crumbling homes.
“Look, that’s my bathroom,” shouted Mohammed Bakri to his friend as he pointed to a building sliced in two by the Israeli air force. “There is nothing left,” he said almost proudly.
“This is nothing,” said Amani Balqis, 37, her young toddler dressed in a yellow T-shirt bearing the picture of the hero of the day. “These are just material possessions, we can always have them back. But our heads are held high and that is why we are happy today. We managed to beat Israel, something no other army in the world has done before,” she said.
On Monday, Nasrallah announced in a televised speech on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television that payments would be made immediately to the families living in 15,000 homes completely destroyed by Israeli bombardment.
“We believe every word he says,” said Amani’s sister Suheir, 40. “He’s an honest person and he has never lied to us. Everything will be compensated,” she said.
Deeper in the suburb, lies Hezbollah’s command centre, a block of building units where the Shia group held offices. There, in and around the heavily guarded square mile, the atmosphere was more serious.
Kalashnikov-bearing men in combat trousers guarded the entrances. Only residents or journalists were allowed into this zone, which was equally heavily guarded before the war.
In a small makeshift office, four Hezbollah members, their weapons discreetly tucked in the waist of their trousers, handed out green paper slips the size of business cards marked “Entry permission.”
The permits were only given to those who could prove, with official ID cards or passports, that they lived in the area.
“We are worried about unexploded munitions,” said a bearded man who would only identify himself as “Hezbollah youth”, hugging his assault rifle tightly to his chest.
A masked Mustafa Ajjar emerged from the first floor of his building, where the other four floors had been blown off, dragging a dusty suitcase behind him.
“It is not anything of value,” said the 45 year-old paediatrician who also lost his private clinic in the raids.
“It’s just for the children. Things they can remember. Right now, they need the comfort of something familiar,” he said.
The sound of an explosion sent Mustafa ducking under a partially destroyed roof for cover.
“It’s another unexploded bomb,” said the young Hezbollah member, his walkie-talkie giving him the exact location of this most recent explosion.
“This one was very close,” he said pointing to a building where smoke was beginning to rise. We’ve already had four explosions this morning,” he said.
“There were no casualties but it is still very dangerous here.”
The guerrilla group, whose fighters declared victory over Israel after a UN-brokered ceasefire, has renewed its reputation as an iron-willed movement that mixes power with politics.
The group propelled itself back onto the world stage with the capture of two and killing of eight Israeli soldiers on July 12, sparking a month-long Israeli military offensive and the worst cross-border fighting in a quarter century.—AFP
