Lebanese grapple with fear and tough choices as regional war looms
Al Jazeera
As the spectre of a major war looms over Lebanon, civilians are bracing for the worst-case scenario.
Beirut, Lebanon – On July 27, Loubna El-Amine was waiting to board a connecting flight from Romania to Lebanon’s capital Beirut, having travelled from her family’s home in the United Kingdom.
As boarding started, El-Amine received news that a projectile had killed 12 Druze children and young people in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Israel blamed the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, which denied responsibility for the incident.
Fearing how Israel would respond, El-Amine, a Lebanese-American, discussed with her husband whether to board with their three children or not.
Moments later, they got on the plane.
Shortly after they arrived in Beirut, Israel assassinated one of Hezbollah’s top commanders, Fuad Shukr, by launching a rocket into a residential building in Dahiyeh, a district in southern Beirut. They then killed Hamas’s political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital Tehran during the inauguration of President Masoud Pezeshkian.
