BEIRUT — Four days into Lebanon’s fragile ceasefire with Israel, there is a cautious calm in Beirut, but residents say they want peace in their country, where Israel-led strikes have killed more than 2,200 people.
Still, life has not slowed in the capital city. The roads are packed with traffic and people walking to and from shops. People are wary that the short-term peace will not hold as they dig out from rubble in a dense part of the city.
Damage in Tallet El Khayat in Beirut today. Michael Fiorentino
We visited two sites in central Beirut where at least 100 people died just 12 days ago — which was part of the most aggressive bombing day from Israel during this conflict, claiming the lives of more than 300 nationwide. Locals are still questioning why their residential areas were targeted since neither of these Beirut neighborhoods are considered Hezbollah strongholds.
In the area of Mazraa, smoke shop owner Abdelrahman Samir Nami, who witnessed the blasts and saw dozens killed, had tears in his eyes as he said, “We just want to live at peace as Lebanese people.” His wife, Abeer Salah, said she is living with trauma now.
“I wasn’t scared before this attack, but now I have trauma,” she said. “Anything that passes by me scares me. Even a car or a mosquito. It’s affected my memory.”
But their shop is open, next to a new crater and a charred apartment building where workers are actively digging through rubble.
Inside a smoke shop in Mazraa, Beirut, today. Michael Fiorentino / NBC News
Down the road in Tallet El Khayat, an upscale area, a whole side of a building is crumbled to the ground. Around 20 people were killed there, including the building’s owner, who was on the top floor. His wife survived.
Two women, Yasmina and Mariam, returned to work today next door at a clinic for kids with special needs.
“There are families in this country,” Mariam said, “there are children in this country, people who have invested their whole lives here, who live here, who love it here, and who want to just live in a stable and peaceful country.”