Relentless Israeli air strikes turn Beirut's Dahieh into ghost town

Hezbollah gives journalists a rare tour to show the destruction around the suburb where its leader was killed by Israel

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Hours after an air strike hit an apartment complex in Beirut's southern Chyah suburb, thick smoke stubbornly hangs in the air, joined by fresh wisps from the crater left behind by the Israeli bombing. After the 3.30am strike, which levelled four residential buildings, people look on in shock and concern.

“I don't have the words to describe how I feel when I see the destruction,” an electrician said, staring with obvious emotion at the smouldering site surrounded by heaps of mangled concrete and rebar. She had arrived to repair electricity cables damaged in the blast but found more destruction than she had imagined.

She told The National that she heard voices seemingly coming from under the rubble in the morning, sparking fears that the buildings' concierge and his family were trapped.

As Lebanon's Health Ministry has not yet released Wednesday's death toll, their fate remains unknown. Residents said the concierge’s family was the only one left in the building, as the area, like most of Lebanon's southern suburbs, had been completely emptied after Israel’s deadly air campaign against parts of Lebanon, particularly the south, the east and the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, called Dahieh.

Israel said it is attacking Hezbollah infrastructure to allow the safe return of the tens of thousands of its citizens displaced by the fighting between the two, which have been exchanging fire amid the Gaza war.

About a week ago, Israel intensified the border skirmishes into a major air campaign and a ground invasion of southern Lebanon. Since then, Israel's relentless bombardment has killed more than 1,000 people, according to figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

Israel launched new strikes on Beirut's southern suburbs early on Wednesday, with large explosions heard around the capital. Throughout the night, the Israeli army issued warnings, ordering residents to leave areas near “Hezbollah facilities".

The residential complex in Chyah was on the map published by the army spokesman on X (formerly Twitter). About an hour after his post, Israel began shelling.

“It felt like an earthquake,” Hussein Zein, 52, told The National. He left Chyah a week ago for neighbouring Ain El Remmaneh, a Christian area spared from Israeli bombardment.

Lebanese officials estimate that more than one million people may have been displaced from their homes. Streets in the heart of the capital are filled with displaced families who fled dangerous areas in a hurry, with nowhere to seek refuge.

“[The Israeli army] says you must leave, but they don’t even give you time, and they struck right after," Mr Zein said. "These are unjust attacks against humanity and civilians, they are attacking innocents indiscriminately, claiming there are weapons among us."

Residents are shocked to see destruction and violence in the heart of once-busy areas, annihilating any sense of safety.

“There used to be a pharmacy here,” Mr Zein said. Google Maps still shows a pin marking the pharmacy at the location, but nothing remains.

Ghost town

Mr Zein was among the passers-by gathered at the site of the attack in Chyah, along with hundreds of journalists invited to a rare Hezbollah tour of Dahieh on Wednesday.

Hezbollah holds sway in Dahieh but it is also home to thousands of civilians. It has been almost entirely closed to foreigners since Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's charismatic leader, was killed in an Israeli strike on Friday.

The whole neighbourhood has been turned into a ghost town, with the ominous sound of drones buzzing over the heads of the few remaining residents. All of the shops are closed and the pavements are covered in glass shards from shattered windows. A persistent smell of burning hangs in the air, seeping into the fabric of one's clothes..

Wissam, 33, said he got his family out of Dahieh safely, but chose to stay himself.

"These are residential areas," he said, pointing to a destroyed building at the entrance of which pictures of Mr Nasrallah were hung.

“Everyone is upset. These are our streets, our neighbourhoods. We all know each other. They are destroying Dahieh but we rebuild and we will return. And inshallah, we will win.”