Israelis 'will have to destroy half of Lebanon'

Globe and Mail
Jul. 24, 2006

SIDON, LEBANON -- As he mentally girds for war, the signs that things are grim in south Lebanon are all around Nasser Bahjat.

The 40-year-old butcher and Hezbollah reservist was standing next to a building that used to be the head office of an Islamic charity until it was transformed by an air strike yesterday morning into a smoking heap of concrete and metal. The nearby road north was packed with refugees -- sometimes crammed a dozen or more into a single car -- fleeing the slow advance of the Israeli army into Lebanese territory.

But rather than defeat, angry defiance was etched into the features of Mr. Bahjat's unshaven face as he spoke of what will come next for this already war-ravaged land. By starting its ground offensive, he says, Israel has begun a battle it cannot win. "They will have to destroy half of Lebanon to defeat Hezbollah because we're all with the resistance. We're all with Hezbollah and we will sacrifice anything for Hezbollah," he said.

A crowd gathered around him, nodded their heads in agreement. "The kids will pick up stones, and we will pick up Kalashnikovs," said a man, who refused to give his name.

The first 12 days of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, or the Party of God, has largely been a long-range exchange of fire, with Hezbollah lobbing hundreds of deadly rockets at Israeli cities and Israel responding with heavy artillery barrages and waves of air strikes. But with Israeli troops crossing into south Lebanon over the weekend and seizing the village of Marun al-Ras, the fight is about to get a lot more personal.

Military experts say that Hezbollah, which has about 5,000 full-time fighters, has another 10,000 reservists. Mr. Bahjat says he is one of them, and that he is ready to fight when the time comes.

"Hezbollah so far hasn't asked us for help, but we're ready the second they do. We all have hidden weapons," he said without elaborating.

Despite a growing humanitarian crisis -- Sidon's normal population of 100,000 has been swelled by 35,000 refugees from hard-hit villages farther south -- Hezbollah and its supporters say they have no intention of surrendering to Israel's demands that the group disarm and hand back two soldiers it kidnapped this month.

Instead, the militia says the battle is going well. The group acknowledged yesterday that the Israeli army was occupying Marun al-Ras, but tried to spin the loss as a victory.

"When the enemy tried to present the occupation of Marun al-Ras as a great military achievement, it was fooling its people and the world because an army which is fighting with elite troops and tanks, backed by air forces, could not enter a village on the border without days of fighting and huge losses," read a statement released yesterday by Hezbollah. Five Israeli soldiers died during several days of fierce clashes in the village, while Hezbollah says it lost three fighters.

But while the fighters bragged yesterday of their readiness for more bloodshed, south Lebanon's morgues and emergency wards continued to overflow with the civilian casualties of what so far has been a lopsided war.

In Sidon's Labib Medical Centre, Ikhlas Hamzeh and her seven-year-old son, Jaber, lay in neighbouring beds recovering after a missile exploded near their car as they tried to flee their town of Bint Jbeil.

The mother had a broken right leg, while Jaber had two broken legs and gauze bandages covering much of his face. In obvious pain, the boy stared at the ceiling, trying not to cry in front of strangers.

"Tell Israel and tell [Hezbollah] -- tell both sides -- that children are getting hurt, that children are dying," Ms. Hamzeh said.