‘I tell them it’s fireworks’: Families in Lebanon try to reassure children on the patches of grass they now call home

Those already left homeless by Israel’s bombardment of Lebanon watch on at the latest target – an apartment building where the fifth floor has been completely wiped out.

Overnight, Israel’s strikes on Lebanon came to the very centre of Beirut for the first time in nearly two decades.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government want to give the impression they can reach anyone, anywhere.

This time, the aim wasn’t Hezbollah, but a Palestinian militant group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Just opposite the destroyed building – in a busy part of the city where buses move people from Beirut to the rest of the country – business owners trying to make a livelihood say they are terrified.

“Three-quarters of Beirut have already left the city and business here is down,” shop owner Zawal Hamad says.

The face of Hezbollah’s deputy security general can be seen on television screens in cafes across the capital.

Inside one is nervous owner Mohammad.

“You don’t know where the bombs will come down,” he says.

“Bombs are going down everywhere and people are confused about where to go for safety.”

Rasha, a maths teacher, fled the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh three days ago.

She lost her home in the bombardment but doesn’t want Hezbollah to back down.

“We are mourning the martyrdom of someone who means a lot to us. His destiny was to liberate Palestine and we are following that path,” Rasha says in reference to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike.

“We shouldn’t stop this pursuit even if we lose everything. We support this.”

On a square in downtown Beirut, families with young children huddle on patches of grass which they now call their home.

Among them are seven-year-old Laya and her six-year-old brother Roni, who fled for their lives with their parents three days ago.

It doesn’t take much for Laya to voice her nervousness.

“We aren’t going to be able to return to our homes because the strikes are so close. One strike was really close to my school and another to my uncle’s house,” she says.

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Her mother, Zeina, tries to reassure her children.

“I try to calm them down and tell them it’s fireworks and it’s nothing to worry about. But when they see strikes with their own eyes, they become scared and they say to me, ‘mum something bad is happening’.”

“They start to cry and something is wrong.”

Laya just wants to go home and go back to school.

However, as an Israel incursion into Lebanon appears imminent, and with no ceasefire in sight, this park could be home for some time.