Random Thoughts from Lebanon

Local TV reported that an evacuation ship, Princessa Marissa, would be in Tyre Monday morning. Later, when I was able to check email I found a message from the Foreign Office advising that a German chartered ship would be in Tyre Monday and would take any EU nationals wishing to leave to Cyprus. It advised those who wanted to leave to contact the embassy. I phoned the embassy, who knew nothing about it! This time they did call back within an hour to confirm, and give me contact details of the warden in Tyre who was co-ordinating the arrangements with the German embassy. 

While in town during the morning, we received some mazoot sent on a bus by a friend in Sidon. This gave us about 500 litres in the generator fuel tank, but we sent the containers back for another shipment  as, with no mains electricity, we were dependent on the generator for power. 

The Tyre warden, Cliff Clarke, called and confirmed that my name was on the list of those to be evacuated the next day. I was instructed me to be at the Rest House at 7.00 a.m. Monday although the sailing time was unknown. 

Spent the last night in the basement.

There were regular targeted bombings around us during the night, the blast from one of which set off the Pajero car alarm. The front door of the house succumbed to the repeated blasts again and we had to nail wooden bars across the inside to keep it shut. 

We went into town about 11.30 a.m. Abu George, the wine merchant, was open, so we stocked up on red wine and tonic, as well as cigarettes, vegetables and bread but very few shops were open. 

Another night in the basement.

There were still occasional bombings around us early this morning, but fewer than before. Attempts to arrange a cease-fire were being ignored in Israel but they did agree to set up a “humanitarian corridor” from Cyprus. How and when was not clear.

An announcement on BBC World Service radio for British citizens in Lebanon said that the government was trying to arrange safe evacuation from south Lebanon. I called the British embassy to get advice. They knew no more than I did from the BBC news report but took my number and said they would call back. They never did. It was not clear why they did not coordinate with the UN, who had chartered a ship to come to Tyre the previous day.

Throughout the morning, there were regular bombings in a valley behind the house. Local television reports that Israeli military chiefs admitted that they had not broken the will or ability of Hezbollah seemed to be supported by continuing attacks on the same locations. The possibility of a large-scale invasion of the border area was raised again. Bombings continued in afternoon until about 4.00 p.m. 

Jim Muir reporting from Tyre on the 9.00 p.m. BBC World Service TV news spoke of a mass burial in Tyre – but bodies had been gathered from all over south. In addition, there were reports of leaflets dropped on Tyre from by Israeli planes, telling those left in south Lebanon to move north of the Litani River. Our local information was that the leaflets found in Tyre were brought there from other villages in the south. 

At 9 p.m., Al Jezeera TV reported Hassan Nasrullah saying that Hezbollah would let the Lebanese government decide about handing over two soldiers they had kidnapped.

There were some bombings in the orchards between 3.00 and 5.00 a.m., after which it was quiet.

 We could see a ship coming to Tyre, which turned out to be the Louis Cruise Lines ship charted by the UN. At that time, we did not know whom it was there to evacuate and I had not been informed about the sailing by the Embassy. It later transpired that, as well as UN civilian staff and dependents, it had taken out other foreigners, including some UK citizens.

 We went into town while ship was lying offshore. The coast road to Tyre was obstructed by two large craters, but we were able to pass them. The town was very quiet. Some small shops and bakeries were open and we were able to get bread, which was rationed to two bags per person; I got my allocation. The wine merchant was closed, so we were unable to replenish our red wine stocks! We returned home by 11.00 and shortly after bombing of the orchards began again and lasted until 1.00 p.m.

 The evening news on one of the local TV stations was still interrupted by Libanpost advertisements. We continued to sleep in the basement.

It was a relatively quiet night. There were a couple of bombs within 2 or 3 km but generally, throughout the country, few new incidents. The Israeli emphasis seemed to be very much on Hezbollah sites in south, close to the border.

 It was reported that the Security Council would meet the next day to receive a report from its delegation that had been in area and that Condoleezza Rice might travel to region on Friday.

 Attacks on the orchards below us continued throughout the morning until about 2.30 p.m. After that hardly a sound of aircraft. What we had seen seemed to confirm Israeli statements that they are now targeting Hezbollah locations and supply routes only. We suspected that Hezbollah were using agricultural roads through the orchards below us to move missile launchers.

 A local radio station reported that the Electricity Authority bill collectors were working in Jounieh and were threatening to cut off supplies if bills were not paid. They were lucky to have a supply to cut!

 We continued to spend most of time in the basement and sleep there. I passed the time reading a biography of Adolf Hitler. It seemed appropriate somehow.

We were woken about 3.30 a.m. by an extremely load explosion that seemed to be very close.  On going downstairs, we found the front door blown in as well as one air conditioning grill from the ceiling now on the floor.  We retreated to basement until daylight. We were unable to see where the bomb had fallen; later news suggest in a village about 1.5 km south of the house.

 During the morning, with the help of a neighbour, we were able to make emergency repairs to the front door, but it remained unusable for the duration. Because of the lack of email, I sent a text message about the situation to my brother-in-law and we arranged that I should do this daily and that he would pass it on by email to the various family and friends who were on my distribution list.

 Maarouf needed medication under a regular prescription so he called the pharmacist that he normally uses at home. She sent someone to the shop to get the required medicine, delivered it to Maarouf’s nephew who lives near to it, and refused to take money in case he might need it for other things. This is how the Lebanese were helping each other during the crisis.

 A truck loaded with medical supplies from the UAE was bombed by Israel en-route to the south. In the meantime, people continued to leave Tyre, some in busses sent there from Sidon by Bahia Hariri, and the first UK citizens were evacuated from Beirut to Cyprus on HMS Gloucester.

 UN attempts to negotiate a ceasefire received cool reception in Tel Aviv. The United States and Israel seemed to have a plan and the time had not yet arrived for this gesture.

 Although it was a quiet evening, after the experience of the previous night, we decided to sleep in the basement, and continued to do so every night.

Again, a quiet night, after there had been some nearby bombing during Sunday evening. The telephone landlines had ceased to work because, as we later discovered, bomb blasts had brought down the overhead cables. This meant that there was no longer an internet connection and I was unable to send out my usual daily bulletin.

 We went into Tyre about 09.30 a.m. Once again, there were very few people around and only a few small shops open. We were able to buy more supplies for some of our neighbours as well as for ourselves.

 News reports of the bombing of the road just south of Sidon seemed to be substantiated by ambulances heading that way from Tyre as we returned to the house. People continue to leave Tyre, often with no clear idea of where they were going. The bombing of the road seemed to confirm that staying put was the best thing to do, especially as a seat in a service taxi from Tyre to Beirut, usually about $5, was by then costing $100.

 The Embassy advised that Royal Navy vessels were on the way to Beirut however, a decision on evacuation, especially from the south, depended on security guarantees from both sides.

After enjoying a quiet night things warmed up during the morning. We think that Hezbollah missiles, which were the first to hit Haifa, were fired from a lemon orchard at the bottom of the hill, about 2 km from the house. There was a very rapid response, with four Israeli missiles hitting the location, but by then the missile launcher must have been moved on. Anticipating more reprisals, we took refuge for a while in a neighbour’s basement, which was in a less prominent position on the hillside than our house. We returned home early in the afternoon when things were generally quiet. Israel started to issue warnings to people in the south to go north, as they were planning retaliation against Hezbollah for rocket attacks on Haifa. A number of people we know in Tyre decided to take this advice and went to Sidon, the Chouf area and even Beirut. We decided to stay.

 In the middle of war, we still had advertisements during the evening local TV news promoting the speed with which Libanpost would deliver your mail and the merits of Dewar’s whisky.

The sound of aircraft, presumably on their way further north, kept us awake during the night from about 1.00 to 6.00 a.m. There was still some bombing activity in the area in the morning, but this seemed to be very targeted and not heavy.

Once again, we went into town during the morning. It was very quiet, there were only a few shops open and those that were had only limited goods on the shelves.

By lunchtime, it seemed that activity by both sides had reduced and there was no more anti-aircraft fire from the Lebanese army camp. However, hopes that the lull was a prelude to a ceasefire proved wrong. If anything, the situation started to get worse later in the day, with bombings on the outskirts of Tyre and at Jounieh Port. Although various embassies were talking about evacuation of their citizens, there was little, at that time, they could do to move them out because of the Israeli naval blockade and the serious risks involved in travelling by road. Syria seemed to be letting anyone who could reach the border in, regardless of nationality or visa rules, but getting to the border involved a difficult and dangerous journey.

It was becoming clear that there was not going to be a quick solution and we had to take stock of our food and fuel situation. At the start of hostilities, we had a well-stocked freezer and almost a full tank of generator fuel. As there had been no mains electricity since the first day, we had been rationing our use of the generator and now decided to reduce further its use until we could find a source of fuel.

Today, we drank the last bottle of red wine. We still had several bottles of white in stock, and no shortage of gin.

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.