BEIRUT (AP) – The Lebanese citizens most devastated by the Israel-Hezbollah war are Shiite Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they share a religious identity with Hezbollah fighters and often live in the same neighborhoods.
“This is obvious,” said Wael Murtada, a young Shiite man who watched medics sift through debris after a recent airstrike destroyed his grandfather’s two-story home and killed 10 people. “Who else is being attacked?”
Israel focused its attacks on villages in the south and northeast of Lebanon and areas south of Beirut. This is where Hezbollah fighters work, and their families live side by side with large numbers of Shiites who are not members of the group.
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Israel insists its war is with Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people – or the Shiite faith. It says it is targeting members of an Iranian-backed militant group to try to halt its year-long campaign of stone-pelting across the border. But Israel’s intentions mean little to people like Murtada as the Shiite population continues to die in a war that has escalated sharply in recent months.
The Shiites don’t just measure the suffering of their community in death and injury. All the blocks of the coastal city of Tire were destroyed. Large parts of the historic market in the city of Nabatiyeh, which dates back to the Ottoman era, were destroyed. And in Baalbek, an airstrike damaged the city’s famous Hotel Palmyra, which was opened at the end of the 19th century, and the house dates back to the Ottoman period.
“The Lebanese Shia are being punished together. Their urban areas are being destroyed, and their cultural buildings and infrastructure are being destroyed,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
As Shiites flee their homes and war-torn communities, fighting continues to follow them to other parts of Lebanon, and this is fueling tensions.
Thousands of people were killed by Israeli aircraft in Christian, Sunni and Druze areas where the Shiites took refuge. Many residents in these areas now think twice before offering shelter to displaced people for fear that they may have links to Hezbollah.
“The Israelis are targeting all of Lebanon,” said Wassef Harakeh, a lawyer from south Beirut who in 2022 ran against Hezbollah in the parliamentary elections and whose office was bombed by an Israeli jet. He believes that one of Israel’s goals is to increase tensions within the small Mediterranean country, which has a long history of sectarian fighting even as different groups live together in peace these days.
Some Shiites say that the Israeli military’s statements over the years have only strengthened the suspicion that their vast territory is being targeted as a way to pressure Hezbollah.
Another commonly cited example is the so-called Dahiyeh doctrine, which was first supported by Israeli officials during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It refers to the southern districts of Beirut where Hezbollah’s headquarters are located and where all residential areas, bridges and shopping facilities were destroyed in the two wars. Israel says Hezbollah hides weapons and fighters in such areas, turning them into legitimate military bases.
A video released by the Israeli army last month was interpreted by Shiites as further evidence that little distinction is being made between Hezbollah fighters and the Shiite population.
Speaking from an unnamed village in southern Lebanon, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari called it “a terrorist camp. This is a Lebanese village, a Shiite village built by Hezbollah.” : “Every house is a place for terrorists.”
A military spokesman disputed the idea that Israel tries to blur the line between soldiers and civilians. “Our war is with the terrorist group Hezbollah and not with the people of Lebanon, wherever it came from,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. He denied that Israel was deliberately trying to disrupt Lebanese society, and pointed to Israel’s evacuation warning to civilians before the airstrikes as a measure to minimize damage.
Many Lebanese, including some Shiites, blame Hezbollah for their suffering, while condemning Israeli bombing. Hezbollah started firing stones into Israel last year the day after Hamas attacked Israel and started a war in Gaza; this contradicted the group’s promises to use its weapons only to defend Lebanon.
Since last October, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and women and children accounted for more than 900 of the dead, according to the Ministry of Health. More than one million people were forced from their homes. The Shiites, who make up a third of Lebanon’s five million people, have borne the brunt of this crisis. Israel says it has killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members in the past year.
Death and destruction in Lebanon increased dramatically in mid-September, when Israeli warplanes began targeting Hezbollah leaders, and again in early October, when Israeli ground forces invaded.
At the start of the war, Israeli airstrikes killed around 500 Hezbollah members but caused little damage. But since the end of September, airstrikes have destroyed entire buildings and homes, and in some cases killed many people when the intended target was a Hezbollah member or official.
On one very bloody day, Sept. 23, Israeli planes killed about 500 people and caused hundreds of thousands of people – again, mainly Shiites – to flee their homes in fear.
Murtada’s relatives fled south of Beirut in late September after the blockades were airlifted. They moved 22 kilometers (about 14 miles) east of the city, to the most common Druze mountain village of Baalchmay to live at Murtada’s grandfather’s house.
Then, on Nov. 12, the village where they took refuge was destroyed without warning. The plane killed nine relatives – three men, three women and three children – and a domestic worker, Murtada said.
The Israeli army said the house was used by Hezbollah. Mr. Murtada, who lost his grandmother and aunt in the strike, said that no one in the house was related to the gang.
Hezbollah has always prided itself on its ability to stop Israel, but the latest war has proven otherwise and undermined its leadership.
Some Shiites fear that the weakening of Hezbollah will result in the entire community being politically excluded once the war ends. But others believe it could provide a political opening for diverse Shiite voices.
Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire talks appear to have gained momentum in the past week. Some critics of Hezbollah say the group may have accepted the situation months ago.
This would have saved Lebanon “destruction, martyrdom and losses worth billions (of dollars),” the Lebanese ambassador, Waddah Sadek, who is a Sunni Muslim, wrote on X.
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Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg provided this report from Tel Aviv, Israel.