As Israel continues to pummel Lebanon in its resumed war against the country and the Hezbollah paramilitary, we get an update from Associated Press reporter Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut. “If you compare this particular war to the last one, less than two years ago, what happened in the past three weeks is what happened in the past seven or eight months,” says Chehayeb, who describes masses of displaced people and fears of an imminent ground invasion. “There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country, and it doesn’t appear that these strikes will stop anytime soon.”

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

In Lebanon, there are reports of heavy fighting between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli soldiers backed by air and artillery fire as Israel pushes ahead with a ground invasion of South Lebanon. More than 1 million people have been displaced by Israeli strikes, evacuation orders, as well, across Lebanon. The Israeli military has also destroyed several bridges over the Litani River, which connects the south of Lebanon to the rest of the country.

Lebanese health officials report more than a thousand people have been killed and thousands injured since fighting began earlier this month. At least 40 medical workers are among the dead. There are over a hundred children who are dead.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights raised concerns of possible war crimes, writing, quote, “In many instances, Israeli airstrikes have destroyed entire residential buildings in dense urban environments, with multiple members of the same family, including women and children, often killed together. Such attacks raise serious concerns under international humanitarian law. People displaced by the fighting and living in tents along Beirut’s seafront have also been hit. … Deliberately attacking civilians or civilian objects amounts to a war crime. In addition, international law provides for specific protections for healthcare workers, as well as people at heightened risk, such as the elderly, women and displaced people,” unquote, said a spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Fears are growing of a long-term occupation of southern Lebanon. Fighting began following the assassination of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Lebanon, prompting Hezbollah to resume firing missiles into northern Israel.

For more on what’s happening in Lebanon, we go to Beirut, where we are joined by Kareem Chehayeb, correspondent for the Associated Press.

I know there’s a bit of a delay, Kareem. Just lay out what you’re experiencing and what you’re reporting on other people experiencing in Lebanon, in Beirut, in the south of Lebanon.

KAREEM CHEHAYEB: Over the past three weeks, since this latest conflict or latest war began, things have escalated at such a rapid rate. If you compare this particular war to the last one, less than two years ago, what happened in the past three weeks is what happened in the past seven or eight months. There have been daily airstrikes in southern Lebanon, in southern suburbs, several overnight strikes in central Beirut, and a large displacement, which has really shocked the country.

The country at one point was hoping that it was going to restore its economy a bit, improve its regional standing with its relationship with the Gulf and so on. And it had hoped that it was going to, you know, not be involved in this regional conflict with the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran and, of course, Iran’s strikes on the Gulf and this whole regional mess. The Lebanese authorities have been trying their best to stay away from this. And there appear to have been some conversations with Hezbollah to avoid dragging Lebanon into this.

There’s a massive humanitarian crisis taking place now. Beirut is flooded with displaced people. Many are staying in public schools, which have turned into shelters, and many are still on the streets. The impact of the fuel crisis or the cost of petrol because of the energy — the strikes on energy facilities is worsening inflation in Lebanon.

And the Lebanese authorities are trying their best, it seems, to try and halt the fighting or bring a calm to the fighting through negotiations. They’ve offered direct negotiations with Israel. This is a move that France has supported, and France is trying to mediate between the sides. But it doesn’t appear that Hezbollah and Israel are interested in this at the moment. Hezbollah said they’re committing to fighting, no matter what the costs are at this point, while it doesn’t seem like Israel is going to turn back on this ground incursion, these series of ground operations, which looks like it will turn into a wider-scale ground invasion at one point or another. So, there is no diplomatic off-ramp. There is a humanitarian crisis unfolding in the country, and it doesn’t appear that these strikes will stop anytime soon.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk more about the possibility of direct negotiations, you reporting that Lebanon’s government has broken a taboo by proposing direct talks with Israel. What exactly is being proposed?

KAREEM CHEHAYEB: So, the last time Lebanon and Israel had a series of direct negotiations goes back to the civil war. Now, since the end of the last war, the Lebanese and the Israelis have engaged in indirect negotiations through U.N., French and American mediation, largely on a military and technical level. Before the war in Iran began, there were efforts to bring about more civilian participation through diplomats. And there was a couple of meetings, and it appeared to have gone well. But these talks have largely broken down since the war in Iran, and then now here in Lebanon, as well.

As Israel announced the evacuation notice for the Beirut southern suburbs, the entirety of it, and as it appeared that there’s going to be more ground operations in southern Lebanon, President Joseph Aoun one night called President Emmanuel Macron and urged for France to start some sort of diplomatic initiative. Now, usually it’s Washington that comes in, but this time they seem preoccupied with what’s happening in Iran at the moment. And he later — or, soon after, rather — offered direct negotiations.

But the problem that he is facing and the Lebanese government is facing is that they are offering these negotiations as a way to stop the ongoing fighting, that they want a cessation of hostilities, and then negotiate. And in these negotiations, this would reaffirm Lebanon’s commitment to disarming Hezbollah and more — and to bring in more financial support to the Lebanese army so it could deploy across all of Lebanon and make sure that Lebanon’s entire geography is under the control of the Lebanese state and security forces.

Now, it appears that the Israelis, based on officials that I’ve spoken to here and the United States and elsewhere, are not saying no just yet to these talks. But it appears that the difference is that whether or not talks should happen while the fighting is going on or not, that appears to be the sticking point at the moment. Hezbollah, at the same time, do not support talks until the fighting stops and until Israel withdraws from Lebanese territory. So the Lebanese government is unable to get the parties that are involved in this conflict, that are directly engaged in this conflict, to have these talks. Now, that might change, but so far that’s not the case. And while it appears that Israel is keen on talks, the goal of the talks appear to be very different at the moment. That could change. But for the time being, the Lebanese government is sort of caught between a rock and a hard place and is essentially acting as a humanitarian agency.

AMY GOODMAN: Does Israel’s massive bombing campaign and dislocation of a million Lebanese — tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have gone back into Syria — does it strengthen Hezbollah’s domestic support in Lebanon?

KAREEM CHEHAYEB: Hezbollah has always been a very divisive entity in Lebanon. You know, they are considered by some to be freedom fighters that protect southern Lebanon, the only viable armed entity that can protect southern Lebanon from Israel or any sort of foreign invasion, at a time where Lebanon’s army is very cash-strapped and does not necessarily have the same caliber to do so. But others see Hezbollah’s power, involvement in wars in the region, and ability to make these kinds of decisions related to war and peace — are seen as an entity that ultimately serves Iran’s regional interests and violates Lebanese sovereignty by, you know, going beyond the state or setting the state aside.

Now, what we’re seeing here in Lebanon at the moment, that it is worsening internal tensions that have definitely simmered since the last war, where Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where their intent, so they say, at the time was to put pressure on Israel to stop its war in the Gaza Strip. And they are accusing Hezbollah, their critics, of doing the same, but for Iran. But Hezbollah supporters say that since the end of the last war, Israel has not left five hilltop points in southern Lebanon, that Israel continue with near-daily strikes every day on Lebanon, and therefore, they weren’t doing their end of the ceasefire.

There are people who are very loyal to Hezbollah. They still are, despite the displacement. I spoke with people on the streets, in shelters and elsewhere, saying that, “No, Hezbollah have the right to fight, even if they don’t have the same, perhaps, military capabilities it did last time. But in principle, they have to fight. They can’t just tolerate watching, you know, Israel’s ongoing strikes over the past 15 months.”

But there are people who are quite frustrated, saying that, you know, joining this regional war, which the rocket fire was ultimately sparked by the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran, was not something that they needed to deal with, that they’re already dealing with the repercussions of the last war, you know, an estimated $11 billion in damages. A lot of people have taken out loans to rebuild their homes. Some of them have barely been able to spend some time, you know, picking up the pieces from the last war.

It’s hard to, obviously, quantify public opinion in Lebanon, but certainly, if there was ever a time where divisions in Lebanon internally over Hezbollah and basically the identity of the country and where it’s going and where their place is in the region, this is probably the most intense and hostile it’s been internally in well over a decade.

AMY GOODMAN: And the reaction to the far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatening to demolish the southern suburbs of Beirut and turn it into another Gaza Strip, and Arab and Muslim nations condemning recent remarks by the U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, after he claimed that Israel has a right to expand into most of the Middle East? Your response?

KAREEM CHEHAYEB: There’s no doubt that even among people in Lebanon that are critical of Hezbollah, that they do feel horrified by this ongoing war, whether it’s this one or the last one, the evacuation warnings before strikes, the strikes that come without warning at all. And it does — it does frighten a lot of people. And I remember in the last war, for example, speaking to lots of people saying that this is eerily similar to what they witnessed take place in the Gaza Strip among the Palestinians there. So, they are obviously horrified that this is going to be a long war. And a lot of people are indeed worried that with this ground incursion, with the way things are looking in southern Lebanon, that there could be another long-term occupation, perhaps similar to the one that was in southern Lebanon until the year 2000. The difference is whether or not they blame Hezbollah or not for provoking Israel in this sense.

But people are certainly horrified, and they feel that there’s a sense of restlessness in this war compared to the last one. I think the last one, people were able to kind of manage things, for the most part. They were able to navigate themselves. But people feel this is an unpredictable war, that this one has no limits, and they don’t know how to — you know, they don’t feel like anywhere is safe. Some of these strikes in central Beirut, for example, are happening really in the heart of the capital, and they’re happening overnight in hotels where displaced people are staying or in random apartment buildings where, you know, suspected members of Hezbollah or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard are. But even if people, you know, survive these attacks, it brings in a lot of horror. And you can definitely tell that the atmosphere is tense and people are really scared for their lives, because they do not feel like anywhere is safe, and that this is a very unpredictable war this time around.

AMY GOODMAN: We just have 30 seconds, but I wanted to ask you about the bombing of the Lebanese journalist’s home, Mohammed Sherri,, killing him and his wife, injuring his children and his grandchildren, press freedom groups condemning this as a war crime. In a separate strike, this video that’s gone viral, an Israeli missile dropping right behind RT journalist Steve Sweeney as he was reporting to camera, wearing clearly a marked blue press vest. Both Sweeney and his cameraman are reportedly in the hospital. This is just that clip.

STEVE SWEENEY: Further rocket attacks were reported against Nahariya. And a minute —

AMY GOODMAN: Kareem Chehayeb, we just have 30 seconds, but your response?

KAREEM CHEHAYEB: So, journalists in this war have been victims, just like the last one, as well. There were several journalists that were killed in the last war, including Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah, most notably. And this is something that the Lebanese authorities have clearly condemned. It’s unclear how this will unfold. But there has been these two cases already — three, rather, as a videographer with Sweeney was also wounded in that strike. Lebanon, unfortunately, during these conflicts, there have been journalists who have been wounded and killed, and there are concerns that news agencies are trying to deal with, given the unpredictability of the strikes and the nature of this dangerous job.

AMY GOODMAN: Kareem Chehayeb, I want to thank you so much for being with us. Please be safe. We’re speaking to you in Beirut, journalist reporting on Lebanon, Syria and Iraq for the Associated Press.

Coming up, President Trump’s push for the so-called SAVE Act, which could disenfranchise millions of eligible voters. Back in 15 seconds.

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