The Hidden Suffering of Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims in Wartime
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Roshan Amiri
- . November 25, 2024
- . Update: November 25, 2024 4:21 pm
Shiite Muslims are the Lebanese civilians who are most affected by the Israel-Hezbollah conflict and many of them feel they are being unfairly punished since they are religiously similar to Hezbollah fighters and sometimes reside in the same neighborhoods.
Israel has focused its attacks on the towns and districts where a high number of Hezbollah terrorists operate and where many Shiites who are not affiliated with the party reside alongside their families.
Israel maintains that it is fighting Hezbollah not the Shiite faith or the Lebanese people. However, many Shiites whose family members have also lost loved ones in a conflict that has intensified dramatically in recent months show no little meaning in Israel’s declared goals.
Shiites do not only use deaths and injuries as a marker of their community’s suffering.
Tyre, a coastal city, has been crushed in whole blocks. Much of Nabatiyeh’s old market which was built during the Ottoman Empire has been demolished.
Additionally, an airstrike in Baalbek destroyed a house from the Ottoman era as well as the city’s renowned Hotel Palmyra which opened in the late 19th century.
Tensions are rising as Shiites escape their war torn homes and villages and the fighting is increasingly following them to other areas of Lebanon as well.
Israeli bombings on Christian, Sunni and Druze regions where displaced Shiites sought refuge have killed dozens of civilians. These days many locals are reluctant to take in displaced people for fear that they might have ties to Hezbollah.
Some Shiites claim that throughout the years, Israeli military declarations have further increased their fears that Hezbollah is being pressured by targeting their larger group.
Shiites were watching a video released by the Israeli military last month as more evidence that there is no differentiation between Shiite citizens and Hezbollah fighters.
Israel has concentrated its attacks on villages in southern and northeastern Lebanon and neighborhoods south of Beirut. This is where many Hezbollah militants operate from and their families live side by side with large numbers of Shiites who aren’t members of the group.
According to the Health Ministry, more than 900 of women and children were killed out of the more than 3,500 individuals killed in Lebanon since last October. Over a million individuals have lost their houses as a result. The majority of this hardship has been experienced by Shiites who comprise one third of Lebanon’s 5 million inhabitants. In the last year, Israel claims to have murdered well over 2,000 Hezbollah members.
Shiite Muslims, Hezbollah-Israel Conflicts, Deaths, Lebanon’s Inhabitants, South of Beeirut, Hidden Sufferings.
