Beirut, Lebanon – On Friday evening, Mariam* was in her apartment with her teenage daughter and mother when the building began to shake and shake. Painful screams and the whizzing sound of Israeli warplanes soon followed.
Israel launched massive airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut, killing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an unknown number of civilians.
Immediately after the attack, Israel urged thousands of civilians to “evacuate” from Dahiyeh, claiming they were living near Hezbollah operations centers.
Mariam quickly packed several bags of clothes and fled to downtown Beirut, where she now sleeps on the steps of a mosque along with hundreds of other displaced people from her community.
But although Israel has upended her life, she said it was nothing compared to the pain of losing Nasrallah.
“When I first heard the news, I thought it was a lie. I thought, ‘It can’t be true.’” She told Al Jazeera, holding back tears. “Nasrallah was our brother and we always felt safe with him. “Now we don’t know what our fate will be.”
brother, father
Nasrallah became Hezbollah’s leader after Israel assassinated his predecessor, Abbas al-Moussawi, in 1992. Al Moussawi, his wife and 5-year-old son were killed in an airstrike on their home.
Once Nasrallah took power, he began rapidly expanding Hezbollah from a rebel movement into the world’s most powerful armed group and a powerful bulwark against Israeli aggression.
Under his stewardship, Hezbollah liberated southern Lebanon from 18 years of Israeli occupation, lending him hero status throughout the region.
His charisma and astuteness made him one of the most respected and feared leaders in the Middle East.
He has since become a polarizing figure in Lebanon and the region after Hezbollah intervened in the Syrian civil war to rescue President Bashar al-Assad from a pro-democracy uprising. , hundreds of thousands of people will die.
Throughout the war, the Syrian government and Hezbollah committed atrocities, according to news reports and human rights groups.
The report damaged Nasrallah’s popularity throughout the region, but his most ardent supporters backed him out of fear that no one would be able or willing to protect Lebanon from Israel.
Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims are now mourning the man they call “brother” and even “father.”
Refugee families from Dahiyeh in downtown Beirut described Nasrallah as a “martyr” who gave his life fighting against Israel.
“I want to hear his voice again. He was like a father to us. “He was not just a politician.” said Nibin, a Hezbollah supporter and Dahiyeh resident who lost his roots in the strike.
“But we will continue [Nasrallah’s path]. We will continue to fight to destroy Israel, which has always been his wish,” she told Al Jazeera.
Lack of protection?
With Nasrallah gone and Hezbollah reeling from the recent loss of dozens of senior commanders, many Lebanese Shia Muslims fear they have no one to protect them.
“Don’t you see all the crimes of Israel? They are bombing, destroying everything and killing women and children. And no Arab country or Western country is intervening to stop it,” Nivine said.
But Nivine, like other residents of Dahiyeh, believes Hezbollah will ultimately survive the recent Israeli offensive.
Hassan, 25, told the truth about Nasrallah and the ‘resistance’. This resistance is a term that generally refers to Hezbollah and other Iran-linked armed groups that oppose Israel and the US role in the region.
“We will continue and the movement will continue. People will be martyred, [the resistance] We will continue,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hassan added that he was particularly angry because Nasrallah’s death was a major symbol of defiance. In his view, Nasrallah was the only world leader to help Palestinians in Gaza by opening a “front of support” against Israel in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah said it aimed to ease pressure on Hamas, which is fighting for its survival after an Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,139 people.
Israel responded by attacking the Gaza Strip, killing more than 40,000 people since October.
Nasrallah’s decision to support Hamas cost him his life.
“He stood up for Gaza.” Hasan said resignedly on the steps of the mosque. “I know he’s dead. “But he’s in a better place than we all are now.”
uncertain future
Mohammad, a Syrian national who has lived in Lebanon since 2009, said he fled to Dahiyeh from southern Lebanon after gunfire between Israel and Hezbollah began on October 8, 2023.
He said the bustling neighborhood welcomed him, his daughter and his wife upon their arrival.
He too is mourning Nasrallah.
‘I was shocked to hear the news. “We will remember him as someone who waged war against Israel against the Zionists,” he told Al Jazeera.
“But now that he is gone, there is fear and uncertainty. We don’t know what will happen. Will there now be more bombings across Beirut? Will things get worse? Or will it stop? “No one knows.”
Mariam, who fled with her mother and daughter, expressed the same ambivalent feelings about her life and the fate of Lebanon. Over the past 24 hours, Israel’s merciless bombing of Dahiyeh has shattered everything dear to her, she said.
She is mourning the loss of a neighborhood that holds a lifetime of memories, both good and bad. She is also grieving as many of her friends have lost their lives in Israeli airstrikes, while others remain missing. But like many in her community, she said Nasrallah’s death was difficult news to accept.
“We felt safe when he was with us.” Her eyes were full of tears. “Now we don’t know if we will ever be safe again.”
