Watch.. What remains of the historic neighborhoods of Tire after the Israeli raids? | policy

South Lebanon – At the entrance to the city of Tyre, the coastal city that extends between the blue of the sea and the layers of history in southern Lebanon, the visitor does not receive a noisy scene as might be expected at this time of year, but rather a heavy silence that indicates something deeper than calm.

Car traffic is noticeably subdued, and the roads seem less crowded than their usual days, while some commercial facades stand witness to what happened, traces of scattered glass still covering their floors and walls, as if they had not yet emerged from under the dust of war.

Throughout the city’s landscape, damaged residential buildings and shops are silently lined up, their exhausted facades suggesting that Tire is still slowly taking its breath.

Destruction and almost life

In recent days, pictures have returned to the forefront of the scene again, after they were subjected to Israeli raids that targeted residential neighborhoods within them without prior warnings, leaving behind a series of pictures extending from house to house, and from street to street, where it is difficult to find a corner untouched by the effects of the bombing.

The rubble here is not a passing detail in the scene, but rather the most present element. Stones scattered on the sidewalks, doors uprooted from their places, windows turned into black voids open to the air, and remnants of furniture still stuck among the rubble of homes.

In some alleys, rubble is piled up as if it fell all at once, narrowing the streets to an extent that almost prevents crossing, while dust remains suspended in the air as an effect that has not yet subsided since the first moment of the raids.

In the Al-Sawy neighborhood, Muhammad Barshali stands in front of a house that no longer resembles what he knew. He points to the upper floor that was completely destroyed, recalling a short moment that summed up years of fatigue and work. He tells Al-Jazeera Net that he was in the neighborhood at the moment of the raid, and that a violent explosion sent the residents running in a state of panic and confusion. Then he added in a heavy voice: “Everything was destroyed and there is nothing left to return to.”

But the scene of destruction does not stop at the borders of one house. Between adjacent buildings, traces of shrapnel are clearly visible on the walls, while some apartments have turned into spaces open to the sky after parts of their external walls collapsed. On the ground, the remains of glass and cement are scattered in every direction, as if they were an additional layer covering the details of the previous life.

In another house that was severely damaged, Ali Abdul Qader Al-Sheikh insists on staying, despite everything that happened. Inside a room that was not significantly damaged, he continues his daily life with his brother Rabie sometimes, or alone at other times. He told Al Jazeera Net that leaving home is not an option for him, and he summarizes his position in one sentence: “I will not run away, I will stay here no matter what happens.”

Wide scene

As we move between the neighborhoods of Tyre, it becomes clear that what happened is not an isolated case, but rather a wide scene extending over the entire urban map, with rubble filling the edges of the streets, and parts of the demolished buildings extending to the roads themselves, while some families are trying to open narrow corridors amid the rubble to reach their homes or retrieve what remains of their possessions.

In its commercial streets, the facade has completely changed. Clothing stores that used to be full of colors and organized facades are now behind shattered glass with pieces of cloth covered in dust hanging from them. As for the sweet shops, which once exuded the scent of life, they turned into silent spaces, inside which were scattered overturned trays and broken candy boxes, as if time had suddenly stopped in the middle of an ordinary, incomplete day.

Some signs are still hanging, but their letters are faded under a layer of ash, while shop owners stand at the doors in long silence, staring at what remains of the details of their livelihood, which was once a full life.

In the Christian neighborhood inside the city, the scene appears calmer but no less heavy. The alleys are almost empty, as if the movement that characterized the place had diminished under the pressure of tension and recent warnings. The churches stand behind closed doors, witnessing an unfamiliar stillness, while only a limited number of residents appear in the streets.

The shops there are trying to regain their pulse with difficulty, the goods have not been arranged for days, and the faces of passers-by reflect clear anxiety, with repeated glances towards the sky and the side alleys, and calculated steps as if every sound might carry the possibility of a new danger.

At the entrance to the neighborhood, members of the Lebanese army are stationed to regulate the movement and reassure the people. Their presence adds an additional layer of caution, summing up a scene that fluctuates between people trying to cling to their daily lives and the shadow of fear that does not leave the place.

Targeting date

This scene was not limited to residential neighborhoods, but also extended to archaeological sites in the city, where some of their historical landmarks sustained new damage, adding a cultural dimension to the toll of war losses.

The Israeli bombing targeted buildings adjacent to the Tire heritage site, one of which fell on an administrative office inside the site, resulting in damage to archaeological pieces due to the accumulation of rubble on top of them. The damage also extended to the columns, their capitals, and their bases, as well as parts of the archaeological mosaics.

The city of Tire has been included on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 1984, making any damage to it condemnable in accordance with the rules of international humanitarian law, especially the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property during Conflicts.

Deputy Mayor of Tire, Alwan Sharaf al-Din, told Al Jazeera Net that what happened constituted a “new crime in the vicinity of the antiquities,” explaining that a raid occurred near the site and caused damage to it, despite the presence of clear signs indicating its heritage nature. He stressed that “the city of Tire is more than 5,000 years old, and any targeting within it is a direct targeting of history, culture and civilization accumulated over thousands of years.”

He added that a building adjacent to the archaeological site was targeted, which led to damage to the capitals and columns that can be seen with the naked eye, describing what happened as a “barbaric act,” and considering that the supposed protection of the city under its inclusion on the World Heritage List has not been translated into reality.

He stressed that targeting these sites goes beyond physical destruction, and affects an entire cultural heritage extending from the distant past to the present.

Despite all this, Tire is still trying to hold on to its own rhythm, between a damaged neighborhood and a calmer one. Between a destroyed house and another that is still inhabited, the city seems to live between two overlapping layers: a layer of life that is trying to continue, and a layer of rubble that imposes its presence in every corner.