Besieged- interesting article on life in Tyre, Lebanon during the war

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Besieged

Paolo Pellegrin/Mangum, for The New York Times

AIRSTRIKE A five-story building in Tyre was flattened by a bomb from an Israeli warplane on Aug. 7, three weeks into the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

By SCOTT ANDERSON
Published: September 3, 2006
Things were getting back to normal in Tyre. The bomb craters in the main streets had been filled in with dirt, which slowed traffic but at least made passage possible. Some of the town’s more spectacular ruins were already being shoveled into great heaps of rubble. Under the blanching sun of late August, the Lebanese port city — 12 miles north of the Israeli border on the Mediterranean coast — was returning to its usual dog-day rhythms. In the mornings and again in the late afternoons, shoppers crowded the central market, families strolled the corniche, the old seaside promenade, and traffic along Jal al Baher Street, the main thoroughfare on the east side of town, was a honking, barely moving mass. The midday hours, however, were given over to a heat-imposed somnolence. In the old city, residents settled in their leafy courtyards or brought chairs out to the narrow alleys to while away the time with neighbors. The outdoor cafes along the marina filled with men who appeared able to muster only enough energy to smoke. It was a city at rest. Even Tyre’s multitude of cats took part, gathering in bunches to sleep under the shade of parked cars.

Paolo Pellegrin/Mangum, for The New York Times
AFTERMATH Following a predawn Israeli air raid on Aug. 5, some of the remaining residents of Tyre emerged from their homes to survey the damage.

But there was also something new in Tyre. Spanning the highway at the northern outskirts of the city stood a high, triumphal arch quickly constructed from wood and yellow cloth. That color featured prominently on the scores of new posters and banners that lined Jal al Baher Street — that were to be found on lampposts and billboards throughout the east side of the city, in fact. The images on these posters varied, as did their slogans, but all ultimately echoed the same thing: praise for Hezbollah, praise for “the divine victory” just won.


It was Aug. 8, and the city had been under attack for 24 days. Sitting on the veranda of her elegant house overlooking the marina of old Tyre, 46-year-old Madona Baradhi was extolling the virtues of her hometown. From a prominent Christian family whose members can trace their roots in Tyre back centuries, Baradhi, an effervescent and congenitally cheerful customer-service representative for the Libano-Française bank, explained that she had traveled much of the world and found no place better.

“Always when I am on vacation,” she said, “the last few days, I just want to come home because I miss Tyre so much.” She waved a hand out over the bay. “Every day I swim, I walk to my job in downtown, I go to the market. And the people here are wonderful — very tolerant and easygoing. We’ve never had any of the difficulties between the different groups like other places in Lebanon.”

much more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/magazine/03lebanon.html