More bad news

Everything continued: last night they were bombing Beirut (usually between 3 and 4 in the morning). Today pretty much the whole country was under constant attack, the South, the Bekaa, even Zahle apparently, which is a majority Christian area. The count of dead civilians is now at around 200, plus 30 Lebanese soldiers who were killed in air raids on their barracks. The really worrying thing: Israel is on record as saying that this is legitimate, that they are planning to continue the attacks for several weeks even if there ARE negotiations for a cease-fire, and by the way, that civilians are legitimate targets because they all condone Hizballahs actions. And their conditions for negotiating are unattainable: Hizballah should release the two captured soldiers as a precondition for negotiations. This is a strategy of deliberate escalation, obviously - and yes, let's remember that Hizballah were saying right away, on Wednesday when they first captured the soldiers, that they are ready for negotiations and a prisoner swap. Then Israel started the bombing and we got to where we are now. If you don't believe this, read up on it please - it's Israel that everybody needs to pressure for a cease-fire now, it's as simple as that. And why is nobody doing it?

Here in Beirut things are getting increasingly chaotic. So many people came up from the South now (don't ask me how, a lot of them presumably walked it because all the roads and bridges are destroyed) and from the destroyed suburbs that the schools are full and providing for all these peoples' basic needs is becoming increasingly difficult. Yesterday I was at a meeting - a large part of it a pointless discussion about how Lebanese civil society should react to the attacks - where some people were organising supplies and coordinating volunteers for distributing them to those in need.

Today the health minister came on TV calling for help because there is a humanitarian crisis in the South: it's completely disconnected and blockaded, there is not enough food, no medication (including anaesthetics, for example), and still the bombings continue. Does anybody know this where you are? There have been air raids on hospitals, and today on a bus carrying donated medication from the UAE which was completely destroyed.

I am debating now whether to leave the country on a bus to Syria, the German embassy is evacuating people. You have to bring food and water to last for 24hrs (because of the long queues at the border), enough cash in USD, and everyone is only allowed one bag of 10kg. The Israelis are also bombarding the North, which is the only route now on which you can leave by land, but presumably the German embassy will be coordinating their transport with them. I don't know.