Random Thoughts from Lebanon

From about 7.00 a.m. there was the continual sound of planes overhead, but quite high and we could see Israeli warships offshore, presumably to enforce the naval blockade that they had introduced. Between 9.30 and 10.30 a.m., three missiles landed in the area, two in the lemon orchards, about 2km bellow the house and one in a valley behind the house. The missile that landed below us left a small crater in the road, and burned a few trees, but the road remained passable.

We went to town when the situation was quiet and found more shops open than on the previous day. The queues outside the bakeries were shorter and there were quite a few people on the streets. We were able to get more cash from an ATM, increasing our supply in case it would be required for expenses or evacuation.

During the afternoon there was the continued noise of aircraft overhead and repeated anti-aircraft fire from a Lebanese army camp nearby which was, as usual, totally ineffective. During the evening Hezbollah managed to damage quite seriously an Israeli warship that was shelling Beirut airport, with the loss of four members of the crew. After that, we never again saw an Israeli warship off Tyre.

We were awoken at about 1.00 a.m. by the sound of helicopters. Subsequently there were explosions to the east of the house of the house and a small one in the orchards between the house and the sea. The air raid ceased within an hour and the rest of the night was quiet.

 At 8.00 a.m., there was still no electricity and we decided that we should ration the use of the generator to conserve fuel while still trying to keep the contents on the freezer frozen and enabling us to watch the news on television. Between generator sessions, we had a battery radio to keep us up to date on developments.

 The early morning news included the bombing of all three runways at Beirut airport and its subsequent closure. I had been planning to fly out the next day to Dubai and Dar es Salaam and contacted the airline, who suggested that they could re-book me from Damascus on Saturday, assuming that it would be possible to get there by road on Friday.

 We decided to go into town to get money, petrol and groceries. Most shops were closed, including the Co-op and Al Janoub Supermarket, but Spinney’s was open and the shelves still well stocked. There were generally long queues outside bakeries and those food shops that were open. All the banks were closed and the ATM at our bank was not working. We were, however, able to get cash from an ATM at another bank and took as much as was allowed by the system.

 Throughout the afternoon, we could hear the sound of distant, and sometimes not so distant, aircraft, anti-aircraft fire and explosions.

 Having received an email from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office advising British citizens to keep in touch with the embassy, I phoned them to seek advice about travelling by road from Tyre to Damascus next day. Their advice was not to try, as they expected the Beirut-Damascus road to be bombed. Two hours later it was.

 During the evening news on a local television station there was film of a Lebanese cabinet meeting; I could not help noticing that one of the members had a Solitaire game open on the computer screen in front of him.

 A quiet night in Tyre

About 9.30 on the morning of 12 July 2006 I was driving from my house near Tyre to the town. As I left the house, I turned on the car radio to hear BBC World Service reporting that Hezbollah had kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on the border. Almost simultaneously, there was a loud explosion somewhere to the north; it turned out to be the Israeli’s bombing the bridge over the Litani River at Qasmieh on the coast road about 5 km north of the house. I decided to continue into town and do what I had to do; after this, I returned home, where we started monitoring the situation on various local and satellite news channels. Although there was Israeli bombing during the day, it was not in our immediate area. At about 8.30 p.m., following a bombing in the lemon orchards some 2 km below the house, the mains power was cut, never to be restored until 10 days after the cease-fire. It turned out that the cut was because of damage to cables caused by the nearby bombing.