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Home of Hezbollah headquarters relentlessly pounded by air strikes
Jeong Moon Tae, freelance war correspondent BEIRUT, Lebanon - On the 14th day since Israel began attacking Beirut, the Israeli army is repeatedly striking Muslim areas in south Beirut. Israel says that Hezbollah is taking the residents as hostages, or the residents are supporting Hezbollah. These are the ways that Israel is justifying its attack against citizens. Even after they air-raided Muslim residential areas, the Israeli army has continued to keep silent about what military purposes it has accomplished. It has not clarified its military targets in detail, either. The Israelis only repeatedly say, "We are destroying Hezbollah strongholds." South Beirut, the home of many Shiite Muslims, is hit by Israeli air strikes almost daily. It seems as if there is nothing to be destroyed any more, here in this part of Beirut. There are traditionally both commercial and residential buildings in this district: on the first floor are stores and people make their homes on the upper floors. Among these buildings were Hezbollah’s political office and its al-Manar broadcasting studio, both of which were destroyed by the recent Israeli air strikes.I remember when I looked around the Muslim areas in south Beirut, covering Hezbollah a few years ago, and thought that it would not be meaningful to destroy Hezbollah’s broadcasting studio and its headquarters. With the ability to send out programs via satellite through a makeshift studio in the basement of any building, Al-Manar can serve as a mobile ‘guerrilla broadcast.’ It will still be on the air without trouble. As for Hezbollah headquarters, the building which was destroyed by the Israeli army’s air raids is an ordinary office building; but Hezbollah has always been a target of Israeli attacks, so why they created a headquarters building, where all members could be targeted at once, is unclear. As Israel claims, south Beirut is certainly a Hezbollah stronghold. And it is true that residents there support Hezbollah. Due to the support of these residents, Hezbollah was able to produce 14 lawmakers and two ministers. So to speak, the residents of south Beirut cultivated Hezbollah into a legal political organization in Lebanon. Mohammad Lashed, 52, a resident whose home was destroyed by the Israeli air strikes, said, "Hezbollah is all of our life and our hope. Except for Hezbollah, who could drive out the Israeli invaders? Who would have interest in the education of our children?" In south Beirut, no one thinks of Hezbollah as ’terrorists.’ In fact, Hezbollah has fought against Israel and has served as the heart of the Muslim community through conducting projects for the people in areas such as education, medical care, and welfare, often where the Lebanese government has failed. Even the Daily Star, which is the only anti-Hezbollah newspaper in Lebanon, strongly denied the one-sided views of the international community which supports the logic of Israel and the U.S., saying, "Hezbollah is not a terrorist group." Muslims in south Beirut has lived under retaliatory attacks for 14 consecutive days, only because they live with Hezbollah in the same neighborhood. Today, they spent a quiet day without the sound of explosions, but no one knows what tomorrow will bring. Citizens hope that U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice visits Beirut every day; no one knows if Israel stopped air strikes today thanks to Rice’s visit to Beirut, but it is quiet here, for once.
