Air strikes by Israeli forces on Beirut this morning – after five days of respite for the Lebanese capital – have left residents of the capital in a state of fear and anxiety.
Sabine Abiaad, ActionAid’s Regional Campaigns Coordinator, based in Beirut, said:
“We are living in constant fear, unsure when the next attack might happen, leading to anxiety and depression. I am in my forties, and I’ve lived through every phase of war in Lebanon. Now, I find myself facing a painful déjà vu as my daughter, a teenager, and my 12-year-old son ask me the same questions I used to ask my own mother: ‘Are we going to survive? Will we be targeted? Are we going to be killed?’ Old traumas come flooding back, and the child in me, who lived through the earlier conflict in Beirut, is still afraid. I try to reassure them, telling them we should be grateful because we still have our home. But the threat is everywhere – it hangs over our heads, day and night, like a constant, invisible weight that never lets us feel truly safe.
Conflict and the psychological pressure disrupt every aspect of our daily life, leaving us in a constant struggle to adapt to unpredictable conditions, uncertainty and creating a constant state of mental fatigue.”
ENDS
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