{"id":517825,"date":"2026-03-06T09:04:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:04:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/517825\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T09:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T09:04:34","slug":"lebanese-montrealers-concerned-as-war-in-middle-east-expands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/517825\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanese Montrealers concerned as war in Middle East expands"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the war in Iran enters its sixth day, the Israeli military has warned residents in southern Beirut to evacuate as fresh strikes target Iranian-backed Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Lebanese Montrealers. many with loved ones in the region, are now watching developments with growing fears the conflict could pull the country further into the war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s weird to say, but we\u2019re used to wars by now,\u201d said Patrick Ahad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe other feeling that we all share is d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu,\u201d said Caroline Codsi. \u201cI mean, we\u2019ve been through this so many times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahad\u2019s entire family is in Lebanon, half an hour north of Beirut in Jounieh. One of his brothers works in the capital.<\/p>\n

The Lebanese Montrealer says his eyes have been glued to the TV ever since the fighting started.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely cancel a few meetings every day just to watch the news,\u201d Ahad told CityNews. \u201cSo it does affect your mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs, Lebanon, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo\/Hassan Ammar)<\/p>\n

He says the distance makes the uncertainty even harder.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real threat or the worry that we have is Israel taking part of Lebanon\u2019s civilians dying, like innocent civilians dying.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very stressed about any collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Israeli military threatened heavy bombardments in Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs Thursday, issuing a blanket warning for residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes.<\/p>\n

At least eight people were killed Thursday, according to Lebanese health officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish we could stop talking about the resilience of the Lebanese people and start talking about something that is much more concrete in terms of finding solutions for this, what I call proxy war,\u201d said Codsi, who is the founder and chief equity officer of Women in Governance.<\/p>\n

\"\"A giant poster shows the late Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh, while workers check a destroyed building that was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Nabatiyeh town, south Lebanon, Thursday, March 5, 2026. (AP Photo\/Mohammed Zaatari)<\/p>\n

The move comes days after Hezbollah fired several missiles from Lebanon towards Israel after the start of the war.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the second time Israel has advanced on Lebanon\u2019s southern border since 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouth of Lebanon has always been a region of interest for Israel,\u201d Codsi said.<\/p>\n

For those with family in the region, the contrast between daily life in Montreal and the ongoing war is the most difficult aspect to process.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy cousin always sends me videos of things he sees from his balcony, right?\u201d Codsi said. \u201cAnd so here I am getting ready to go to a concert and then I see this. So you\u2019re obviously, well, as I said, you feel guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the war in Iran enters its sixth day, the Israeli military has warned residents in southern Beirut…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-517825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}