‘They’re going to strike’: Panic outside hospital in Beirut as Israeli jets flew overheadpublished at 22:17 British Summer Time 19 September
Nafiseh Kohnavard
BBC Persian Middle East correspondent, in Beirut
When Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s speech began, almost everyone sitting outside the American hospital in downtown Beirut started watching on their phones.
There are many who have relatives or friends being treated for injures caused by exploding pagers. Most looked exhausted, but they watched Nasrallah’s speech carefully.
“I can sacrifice myself for him. He is our leader,” Maryam, from Dahieh, told me. Her husband, a Hezbollah member, lost his right hand and both eyes when his pager exploded.
A few minutes after the speech started, we heard a warplane overhead. Israeli jets were flying low over downtown Beirut.
“They are going to strike,” a man shouted, and everyone looked up. Soon after we hear four loud booms – Israeli jets have broken the sound barrier overhead.
“They want to scare us but they can’t,” a young supporter of Hezbollah said. But the panic was visible on some people’s faces.
A man, 62, whose son, a doctor, was injured as he had a pager while working at a hospital managed by Hezbollah, told me: “We are not in a position that expects anything from our leader. Whatever he decides is for the benefit of our people, and we will support it.”
He added: “We are not Hezbollah members. My son was not Hezbollah member, but we are supporters of the resistance and will stay that way no matter what”.
But there are concerns among many Lebanese that the country is going towards a war – a war that in some people’s eyes only Hezbollah will be responsible for.
