Ground report from Lebanon: Where a bridge once stood, silence now echoes the war

Hours after an airstrike destroyed the Qasmiyeh bridge over the Litani river in south Lebanon, India Today reporter Ashraf Wani reached the site to find an eerie, complete silence – no people, no rescue teams, only wreckage.

The smell of burnt concrete was still in the air when I reached the Qasmiyeh bridge in south Lebanon early Monday, hours after it was struck. What stayed with me was not the destruction, but the silence.

There were no rescue teams, no civilians, no movement. The roads leading up to the bridge were empty, homes nearby shut tight. It felt as if life had stepped away from the area. I had tried to get here the previous day but turned back amid uncertainty and the fear of further strikes. When I finally arrived, I was alone.

The bridge was gone. Steel rods jutted out of broken slabs, and large sections had collapsed into the river below.

This was not just any crossing. The Qasmiyeh bridge is a key route linking southern Lebanon with the rest of the country. Its loss is not only structural. It cuts access to farms, hospitals and daily life.

Standing there, the isolation was hard to ignore. If another strike came, there would be no immediate help. I began reporting, speaking into a silence that seemed to absorb every word.

Then, slowly, the stillness began to break. In the distance, I saw the first vehicles approaching. Other journalists, local and international, began arriving after word spread that access was possible. Cameras came out, voices returned, and life slowly edged back into a place gripped by fear.