Darren Conway / BBCA younger guy is rescued from the rubble of an condominium block in El KarakAt the wheel of an ambulance, Samir El Chekieh drives with sirens wailing to the newest Israeli air strike in El Karak within the Bekaa Valley, japanese Lebanon.The 32-year-old firefighter and paramedic with the Lebanese Civil Protection Power (CDF) handiest were given a couple of hours’ sleep final evening. It’s now the center of the afternoon and he nonetheless hasn’t had breakfast. For the reason that escalation of the conflict between Israel and the Shia Muslim Hezbollah, the women and men of the CDF see little leisure, and brace themselves for a mass casualty incident on a daily basis.This newsletter incorporates graphic descriptionsIt is starkly other from the final conflict with Israel in 2006, Samir says. “We did not have the ones more or less air moves. Lately, a fireplace station was once hit, and a church within the south, and our humanitarian colleagues had been killed.”
Darren Conway / BBCSamir El Chekieh is a firefighter and paramedic with the Lebanese Civil Protection ForceCDF employees say civilians, together with ladies and youngsters, are an increasing number of a number of the useless and injured once they attend a decision out.The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is spreading deeper and wider throughout Lebanon.An intense bombing marketing campaign has broadened some distance past the rustic’s southern border villages and the capital Beirut, to cities within the fertile Bekaa and the ancient town of Baalbek, basically Shia spaces, the place Hezbollah was once based. The port towns of Sidon and Tyre have additionally observed an build up in assaults.
Israel says it’s only concentrated on Hezbollah opponents, guns and infrastructure. Since its marketing campaign in opposition to the militant staff escalated, Israel estimates it has destroyed two-thirds of Hezbollah’s rocket and missile stockpile.However Hezbollah remains to be firing rockets day-to-day against Israel.The BBC spent two weeks with Civil Protection Power crews within the Bekaa Valley, which stretches eastwards to the border with Syria. Permission from Hezbollah was once required to talk over with the scene of Israeli assaults.In that point, the quantity and frequency of moves within the space dramatically larger. On 28 October, there have been greater than 100 Israeli moves, and previously week by myself 160 other people have been killed within the Bekaa, consistent with legit figures. The Lebanese govt does now not distinguish between opponents and civilians in its figures.Samir and his males arrive within the Shia village of El Karak to seek out chaos and destruction – the air is thick with smoke and mud. Previous at their station within the close by town of Zahle, that they had heard a formidable explosion – and from their balcony observed a plume of smoke within the distance. They jumped into their hearth vans and ambulances and headed instantly there.
Darren Conway / BBCSamir and his team search for our bodies within the rubble in El KarakA girl in chador sits at the pavement begging to be let into the smoking ruins of an condominium block, however males reason why along with her to stick put. It’s too unhealthy, a 2nd Israeli air strike might be coming.The primary frame they in finding is of a person, blown around the flooring via the explosion.There are survivors beneath the pancaked flooring of the flats and Samir is going deep within the rubble. He isn’t dressed in plastic protecting gloves as hearth remains to be blazing within, so when he reveals a kid, he can really feel shattered bones underneath his fingertips. As he sparsely retrieves the kid, he realises it’s only part a frame.“The primary sufferer I discovered was once a kid. I have no idea if it is a lady or a boy,” he tells me afterwards. “Sorry to provide an explanation for that. However it is from the tummy and up – from abdomen and down there’s not anything.”Previously, the CDF team have won telephone calls telling them to evacuate a website they’re attending. They suppose they’re from the Israelis. No such name comes on nowadays, so for an hour Samir and others dig deeper into the damage. In the end they discover a 10-year-old lady alive. She tells the rescuers that her eight-month-old brother, Mohammed, was once subsequent to her.“After that, we began listening to the screaming of a small kid,” Samir says.Via a small crevice within the rubble they spot the trapped boy, looking to transfer his legs, his babygrow and a unmarried blue sock visual to the rescue team. They painstakingly take away the particles round him and he’s gently cradled in Samir’s arms and dropped at protection. Mohammed is now being handled in Iraq for the top damage he suffered, his circle of relatives says.
Darren Conway / BBC“We do not ask the intercourse of the sufferer. We do not ask if he is black, white. We do not ask if he is Christian or Muslim. We’re humanitarians,” says SamirThe CDF works throughout Lebanon’s sectarian divide. It does now not discriminate, says Samir, who’s Christian and is the top of operations on the station in Zahle – a predominantly Christian the city, ruled via a statue of the Virgin Mary, which rises 54m above a hilltop.“We do not ask the intercourse of the sufferer. We do not ask if he is black, white. We do not ask if he is Christian or Muslim. We’re humanitarians,” Samir says.The UN estimates that on a daily basis in October no less than one kid was once killed and 10 have been injured in Israeli assaults. The ones losses, mixed with the ones in their colleagues killed in moves, are taking their toll on Samir and his males.Nearly 24 hours when they left the El Karak website, a 2nd Israeli assault introduced down the remainder of the condominium construction.Within the early evenings, Hezbollah nonetheless fires rockets from close by hillsides, concentrated on Israel. One salvo of no less than six projectiles reasons a broom hearth close to Zahle.Within the the city of Khodor, the Hezbollah flag is planted at the ruins of one of the vital many constructions which were flattened via Israeli bombs. Youngsters’s toys had been organized at its base. A big purple Shia flag flaps within the wind close by – it’s nearly the one sound within the in large part deserted the city.
Bekaa is being hammered via relentless Israeli air strikesWith a bandaged head, Jawad Hamzeh takes me throughout the rubble of his house. His 3 daughters died within the assault, together with 24-year-old Nada who was once pregnant. He holds up every other daughter’s regulation books, she was once learning to be a attorney. There have been no militants right here, he says. “The place are the missiles, do you notice them?” he asks.The Iranian-backed Hezbollah started attacking Israel on 8 October 2023 in team spirit with its best friend Hamas, which had performed a devastating assault on Israel the day sooner than. Months of cross-border exchanges adopted, after which, in past due September this yr, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan Nassrallah, and adopted that with a flooring invasion.Hezbollah is dedicated to Israel’s destruction, however it’s greater than a militant staff. It’s the maximum robust political power in Lebanon and a social motion which serves as a bulwark for Lebanon’s long-discriminated Shia communities in opposition to different sects within the nation.Tens of hundreds of Israelis had been displaced via the year-long conflict. Through attacking Hezbollah on a couple of fronts, Israel hopes to degrade the gang and let its other people go back house.In spite of US-led ceasefire talks, neither aspect seems keen to go into reverse.On 30 October, the Israeli army issued an evacuation order within the Bekaa town of Baalbek, which the UN described because the “greatest pressured motion Lebanon has skilled in one day” because the get started of the war. As many as 150,000 other people got handiest hours to escape every other Israeli attack.There, now not some distance from the magnificent Roman ruins with its towering temple of Bacchus, I met Hussein Nassereldine, 42, whose house have been destroyed in an Israeli strike the evening sooner than.“No terrorist or dangerous particular person lived right here,” he says. “All who lived right here have been respectable other people.” He says it was once house to households who had fled Beirut in 1982 all the way through the rustic’s civil conflict, together with his personal. “We have been born right here and lived right here, and we can keep and gained’t go away right here,” he says.As I go away, males with pickaxes and shovels are making sluggish development within the rubble and Hussein prepares to erect a tent on what was once left of his house.
Darren Conway / BBCA displaced circle of relatives sleeps outdoor at the streets of BeirutOutside the town, on the Dar Al Amal sanatorium, the injured are getting better from Baalbek’s deadliest day. Of the 63 other people killed, two thirds of the ones have been ladies and youngsters consistent with the native governor. Israel says it struck 110 Hezbollah-linked objectives.In a naked room, crammed handiest with screams, three-year-old Selin’s tiny hand reaches out for convenience. However there’s no-one there. She has burns to her face, a fractured leg and wounds to her groin and aspect. Her mom, father, two sisters and brother have been all killed within the Israeli air strike that left her damaged and by myself.
Darren Conway / BBCNajat Smeha kisses her two-year-old son Kayan, he’s in sanatorium with a fractured skullAcross the hall of the in depth care unit, two-year-old Kayan Smeha has a fractured cranium. His mom, Najat, 24, kisses him gently on his cheek and cradles him to quieten him.“He’s nonetheless panicking,” she tells me. “And he’s almost definitely re-running the scene as I’m doing. I will be able to care for it, however he’s small, he can’t.”Tears roll down her cheek, however she is defiant.“I’m crying as a result of I’m afraid for my child. But when they believe they may be able to wreck us they’re incorrect. If I needed to, I will be able to sacrifice my son and my husband, my father, my mom, my sister,” Najat says.“Demise of family members is difficult however now not tougher than getting humiliated. And we can hang directly to our religion and to our traditions until dying.” 
Darren Conway / BBCNajat says she is crying as a result of she is afraid for her childAt the small CDF station within the village of Ferzoul, between orchards and vineyards, the Solar comes up after a chilly evening. The seasonal temperature is losing right here and maximum of Lebanon’s shelters for the displaced are complete.Samir arrives and I ask him how he copes with what he has observed.“Probably the most photos are caught in our head,” he says, including that they are going to by no means pass away. He leans closely on his religion.“Whilst you set up to stay one [person] alive, that provides you with the power to stay going,” he says. “And this can be a energy that’s given from God and we are going to nonetheless do our task. Despite the fact that we have been without delay focused, we are saying right here in Lebanon, God will stay us secure and we think about God and he’ll stay us secure.”
