Beirut: Ahmad Sweidan fled southern Lebanon with his family two days ago in the hope of finding safety in a hotel room near the Beirut waterfront.
Then an Israeli drone slammed into the building next door.
Debris from the blast is all over the pavement in a Beirut neighbourhood where people thought they were a safe distance from the Israeli strikes that have continued for days in the southern parts of the city.
Sweidan, 73, says he never thought Israel would strike this part of the city when the bombardments had been in the Dahiya district, a Hezbollah stronghold largely populated by Shia Muslims.
His granddaughter, Fatima, 8, admits she was scared when she woke up in the middle of the night.
“I feel an earthquake happened,” she says.
There were good reasons to think the Ramada Plaza hotel would not be a target. It is in a prime location near the Corniche that curves along the sea in the relatively expensive area of Raouche, a tourist hub in the past because of the views over the Mediterranean.
At other times, people would come to the Ramada to see sights such as the Raouche Rock, a natural limestone arch in the sea. Now, they are coming to this hotel and others because they are displaced from their homes.
The strike has proved that Israeli forces will intensify their campaign in any part of Lebanon to hunt down Hezbollah militants and their allies from Iran, even if that risks civilian casualties.
The drone hit a room on the fourth floor of the Ramada about 3.30am on Sunday (Beirut time), causing a blast that shattered the windows of nearby buildings and damaged cars in the street.
The Israel Defence Forces said the strike eliminated five senior commanders of the Quds Force, a branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that is sometimes described as the Iranian regime’s version of the CIA.
The IDF calls it a “precise” strike. When this masthead visited the area on Sunday afternoon, the blast marks on the facade of the building centred on a corner room on the fourth floor, although there appeared to be damage to nearby rooms.
Each attack brings more anxiety to Lebanon about the escalation since the war with Iran began on February 28.
Many in Lebanon talk of increasing resistance to Israel after it launched attacks on Shia Muslim districts of southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut last Monday. That, in turn, followed Hezbollah’s decision to support Iran by firing explosives into Israel.
Homam Rohayah, 54, who lives around the corner from the Ramada, tells this masthead that the fight against Israel will increase because of the attacks.
“They will not come over here without resistance, and the resistance is right,” he says.
Rohayah, who was born in Syria, believes Israel wants to destroy Lebanon in the same way it has bulldozed parts of Gaza.
“The bigger project is the Jewish state,” he says. “Israel seeks to take over the land from the Euphrates to the Nile.”
This view is strongly held in Lebanon, especially among Hezbollah supporters, regardless of regular statements from Israeli authorities that they want security, not Lebanese land.
Sweidan takes a different view because of his concern about the Iranian regime’s influence.
“Iran is an enemy to me,” he says as he walks past on Sunday afternoon, Fatima by his side.
“I’m Lebanese. I’m living on the Lebanese lands on the borders with Israel.
“Israel did not carry out assaults against me. Now, the war between Iran and Israel means that Israel is attacking us.”
What does Sweidan think about what US President Donald Trump has done by launching a war against Iran? Again, he has a surprise.
“It’s good what Trump has done,” he says. “Iran is interfering in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza, and what’s it doing? It is terror.”
This is a shocking view for others in Lebanon who oppose Trump’s war and reject the Israeli strikes that have forced 454,000 people to leave their communities to avoid missile and drone strikes from their southern neighbour.
However, it reflects the diversity of views in a country populated by Shia, Sunni and Alawite Muslims as well as Greek Orthodox Christians and Maronites, along with the Druze. (Sweidan, a Shiite, adds that he opposes terrorism.)
While the IDF says it took steps with the drone strike to “mitigate” harm to civilians, the Lebanese Health Ministry says 10 people were injured in the blast on Sunday. A Reuters report quoted a father with three children who were taken to hospital.
As the attacks increase, so does the death toll. The Lebanese government says it has reached 394 as a result of the strikes that began on March 2, with hundreds of others injured.
Among the dead are fighters who took on an Israeli force that landed in the eastern town of Nabi Chit on Friday in an operation to find the remains of an Israeli pilot who crashed over the area four decades ago.
The commando operation failed to find airman Ron Arad’s remains and left 41 people dead. The community held their funerals on Sunday.
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Ahmad fled southern Lebanon for safety. Then a drone hit the hotel next door
