By Maya Gebeily and AbdelHadi Ramahi
BEIRUT (Reuters) – When Israel began pounding the southern Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh in airstrikes that killed Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the blasts were so powerful that a pregnant woman feared her baby could not withstand the force.
“I’m 8 months pregnant. The baby wasn’t even moving in my stomach and I was so scared that something happened, God forbid. But finally I felt it,” said Zahraa.
“God, the missiles we saw yesterday, the fires we saw. We could hear every single strike. We haven’t even slept a wink. There’s people sleeping in the streets or sleeping in their cars all around us.”
Like other residents of Dahiyeh, a Hezbollah stronghold, the family — Zahraa, her husband and two sons, aged 17 and 10 – quickly packed what they could and fled for other parts of the capital Beirut. The city shook with each explosion.
Many of the schools used as shelters in the capital were already full with the tens of thousands of people who had fled southern Lebanon in recent days. Those newly displaced overnight said they had nowhere to go.
Hezbollah confirmed that Nasrallah was killed and vowed to continue the battle against Israel.
Nasrallah’s death marks a heavy blow to Hezbollah.
It also brings more uncertainty to the inhabitants of Dahiyeh and those who have left for shelter in downtown Beirut and other parts of the city, after an escalation of the nearly one-year-old war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Ali Hussein Alaadin, a 28-year-old Dahiyeh resident, seemed lost after some of the heaviest Israeli bombardment of Beirut in decades. He barely had enough time to grab his father’s medicine. One of the strikes hit a building just beside them.
“I don’t even know where we are. We’ve been going around in circles all night. We’ve been calling NGOs and other people since the morning,” he said, adding that aid groups would make constantly changing recommendations about where to seek refuge.
“We called everyone and they keep sending us around, either the number is off or busy or they would send us somewhere. Since 1:00 a.m. we’ve been in the streets.”
Dalal Daher, who slept out in the open in Martyrs Square in downtown Beirut, said Lebanese lives were considered cheap as Israel carries out relentless strikes.
“If a paper plane flew over to Israel, it will cause endless turmoil. But for us, everyone is displaced and the whole world is silent about it, the United Nations and everyone is silent, as if we are not human beings,” she said.
(Writing by Michael Georgy, Editing by William Maclean)
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