On the weekend the weather was good: blue and cloudless sky, t .is ideal flying conditions for Israeli combat and surveillance drones. They circled over the city from morning to evening, and detonations could be heard from the southern suburbs. The airstrikes were the heaviest in many days, writes ARD correspondent Martin Durm in a report from Beirut.
Depending on the direction of the wind, the orbs of black smoke were directed towards the sea or towards the city. An Israeli army spokesman said the strikes hit a Hezbollah weapons depot and attacked the terrorist group's financial infrastructure.
These types of messages are common after bombings are carried out. Lebanon's Council of Ministers announced other figures: since the beginning of the war, the dead are almost 2,500, the wounded are 11,500, the displaced are 1.3 million, many of them living on the streets of Beirut or in miserable camps.
"We are not wanted here"
"We are still alive, but our place is not here - we are foreign, they don't want us,", Mariam told ARD, who, like many other Shiites, came to the capital with her children from the south of the country, where heavy battles are fought. The war has also engulfed Beirut. In the Sunni neighborhood of Hamra, full of refugees, you can hear mostly the usual city noise, you can see the absurd vanity of people trying to somehow cope with the weekday - for themselves and their families. Shops and hair salons are open, cars and roller skates pass by, but the constant hum of Israeli drones makes everyone nervous.
Conflicts in the city
There are constant conflicts between those who live in Beirut and those who seek refuge in the city. "It must not be forgotten that the people who are expelled have been through terrible things, they come here full of anger and broken by grief," Omeima Farah, director of the Order of Malta, which provides medical care to the hundreds, told ARD exiles in the Christian east of Beirut. Distrust of foreigners is high, there are rumors of attacks and raids, and many Christians in East Beirut and many Sunnis in the west of the capital feel threatened by the influx of Shiites from the south. "Don't leave your homes at night,", advise the older residents of the city.
There is neither water nor electricity
The apartment block opposite the ARD studio has 12 floors. It stood empty for a long time, considered uninhabitable, threatened with collapse. Now it's full of refugee families. But inside there is neither water nor electricity. At night you can see the light of the flashlights - their rays on the walls look as if the exiles from all the Israeli-Arab wars are performing absurd shadow games.
Author: Martin Durm