Tired Lebanese brace for war after new Hezbollah threats, World News

BEIRUT/SIDON – Lebanese product designer Tara Tabet does not want her country to become embroiled in a large-scale war with Israel, but, like many of her compatriots, she is preparing for a possible conflict after new threats from the armed group Hezbollah against both Israel as Cyprus.

Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah surprised many on Wednesday when he said Cyprus – the EU member state closest to Lebanon – could become involved in the group’s conflict with Israel, which is raging in parallel with the war in Gaza. Cyprus has denied taking sides in any war.

Nasrallah’s warning, who also threatened Israel with widespread precision strikes, left many Lebanese resigned to preparing for a possible escalation.

“Of course we don’t want to start a war with them – but if that is out of solidarity with the people in Gaza, then so be it,” 32-year-old Tabet told Reuters in Beirut on Thursday.

When asked if the threat against Cyprus concerned her, Tabet said it could derail her plans for a civil wedding. In Lebanon, personal status laws are governed by the courts of each religion, requiring many couples from different religious backgrounds to travel forty minutes by plane to Cyprus to get married in court.

She said it was “stressful” to live with so much uncertainty, but that she tried to carry on “as if nothing is there – all of Beirut is like that.”

Many Lebanese see Hezbollah’s eight-month conflict with Israel as the latest episode in a series of recent setbacks — from Covid-19 lockdowns to the 2020 Beirut blast and an economic crisis that crushed the local lira and wiped out bank savings.

Passports and food supplies ready

Sami Masri, a 38-year-old businessman from the south who runs a coffee shop in Beirut, said Israeli strikes have prevented him from taking his family for weekends to the rolling hills of southern Lebanon as he usually does in the summer.

That meant he had to spend more to access private beaches closer to Beirut — and even there, Masri said, he couldn’t have fun.

“You’re not happy because, you don’t know, at any point in time – we have our passports ready, we have a suitcase ready, we have some food supplies ready,” he told Reuters.

About 90,000 Lebanese have already fled their homes in the south. Some have left Lebanon, others are staying with relatives and the most vulnerable are staying in collective shelters, including in the port city of Sidon.

Bana Baalbaki, a Sidon resident who spoke to Reuters in the city’s market district, put on a brave face.

“No, I am not afraid because we are not better than the people of Gaza, nor the people in the south who have been displaced,” she told Reuters.

But others – like shopkeeper Qassem Qarram – were more concerned. “Of course everyone is afraid, and those who tell you they are not afraid are lying to themselves,” he said.

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