All hell broke loose

In the past days the situation has really escalated so much, it's hard to even begin to understand it. A few days ago everyone thought this would have to end soon. But it just keeps going, and getting worse. To recap some of the main facts, Israel has now really destroyed all important infrastructure: roads, airports, ports, radar systems, you name it. And they keep carpet bombing all of South Lebanon, including with outlawed weapons like cluster and phosphor bombs. 141 civilians had died at yesterday's count. I don't know if you get these pictures where you are, but the destruction is massive, entire villages just flattened. Also, Haret Hreik in the Southern sububurbs of Beirut, where Hizballah used to have its HQ, is virtually gone. I'm not exaggerating, the Israelis have been bombing it for 5 days now and it's gone. Today I saw my colleague Badia here at the office. She used to live there for many years (and by the way, no she is not a Hizballah militant) and had just sold her house 2 months ago and moved to a different part of town. She still had all her stuff in the house, though - and now it's all gone. A pile of rubble. Her sister's house is also gone, and she was still living there. Nobody will compensate them. They couldn't take any of their belongings. On top of that, their family members got stuck in a town in the South, and are today on the road trying to reach Beirut, literally risking their lives in doing so - but they had to leave the South because it's even more dangerous there.

Beirut has also changed a lot. The streets were completely deserted over the weekend, everyone was at home waiting to see how things would turn out. You could hear the bombings all over Beirut, they were mostly bombing at night but occasionally during the day, too. On Saturday I was briefly at home when they started bombing the port, about 1 km away from my house. You can imagine what I felt like when I saw the shells falling and exploding and felt the blast shaking the house and rattling the windows: a few seconds of pure panic, before I realised it was a limited operation and it was calming down again. I moved to a friend's house in a different part of town after that, and have been staying with her and her family, which is really nice. There is no way anyone can be on their own in a situation like this.

Today there are a few more people on the streets, but it's all very tense. More and more refugees from the South keep arriving, they are sleeping in schools which have all been opened. People are descending on the stores that are open and hoarding food, even though that might not be necessary and supplies aren't short yet. Everybody is incredulous at what's happening, although that sentiment gets covered by worry and anxiety most of the time.

I feel that people are also very afraid that everyone's abandoning them - and that sentiment is very real. To hear the G8 summit declare their 'concern' about the situation and see the Security Council fail to pass a resolution calling for a cease-fire is really very depressing. It feels like Israel is on a rampage and no-one's willing to stop them. Now most countries are evacuating their citizens from here, and that's a further blow to the morale. Mind you, none of these are forced evacuations - it's only for people who want to leave. The German embassy is advising all citizens who are residents here to stay put for the moment, which is what I've decided to do (independently of their advice). It just feels like I'm not going to abandon my whole life here just now.