By admin 
“Losing a child would be like having a piece of your heart ripped away,” says Hoda Hannaway when speaking about her 10-year-old nephew who was killed by a recent Israeli airstrike in southern Beirut.
The ex-Master Chef contestant from Sydney said she was “deeply saddened” when she learned of his death in a family group chat.
“No child should have to experience a full-scale war, let alone live in constant fear,” she told ABC.
Hoda Hannaway wanted to keep her cousin’s name private. (Delivered)
Waiting to hear from loved ones is like living on the edge.
It’s a sentiment that resonates among the Lebanese Australian community – an estimated 250,000 people.
Devastated for her cousin and her family, she said she couldn’t imagine what they were going through.
Her family has been displaced as she escaped ‘relentless’ bombings in southern Beirut and the country’s south.
“My family in Lebanon is mourning the loss of my cousin and at the same time fearing for their own lives and the lives of their families,” she said.
Families gather in Beirut’s Martyrs’ Square after fleeing Israeli airstrikes south of the capital. ( AP: Bilal Hussein)
More than 1.2 million people in the country have been displaced and are living on the streets or in schools-turned-shelters, Lebanon’s interim Prime Minister Najib Mikatir said.
At least 28 water supplies have been damaged, as well as several schools, at least 15 hospitals and 70 primary health and emergency medical services centres, according to UNICEF Lebanon representative Edouard Beigbeder, who said: “Above all, the children of Lebanon need a ceasefire. “
UNICEF has called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. (UNICEF: Ramzi Haidar)
According to the Lebanese Health Ministry, the death toll in Lebanon from the Israeli bombings has risen to more than 2,653, with thousands injured and others still missing under the rubble.
Israel says about 60,000 of its citizens have been evacuated from the country’s north as the Israeli army and Hezbollah engage each other.
Recently the United Nations criticism of the destruction of civilian property in Beirut after Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah’s financial arm.
According to the group’s now-assassinated leader, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah first fired rockets at Israeli forces in support of Gaza after the war between Israel and Gaza broke out on October 7 last year.
According to Israeli authorities, this came after Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage.
In response, Israel launched airstrikes and invaded Gaza in a war that has so far killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and injured tens of thousands of others, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
Lebanese Shia community in mourning
Australia’s Lebanese Shia Muslims – one of the two main sects of Islam – have been deeply affected by the bombings in Lebanon, as their families come from southern Lebanon, the Beqaa Valley and Beirut.
Ms Hannaway said she felt completely ‘helpless’ as she watched it happen from a distance.
“Not being able to provide them with physical help breaks my heart every day,” she said.
Karima Laachir, director of the Australian National University Center for Arab and Islamic Studies, said this sentiment was common among some in the Lebanese diaspora.
A displaced child walks between makeshift shelters on a beach in Beirut. (Reuters: Louisa Gouliamaki)
Professor Laachir said Hezbollah, which has a military and political wing, has a deep history in Lebanon, making it part of the country’s political and social fabric.
So has Hezbollah as a whole mentioned as a banned terrorist organization in Australia since 2021.
Previously, the Australian government only listed parts of the group’s military wing in June 2003.
Professor Laachir said the group has held cabinet positions since 2005.
In the most recent national elections, in 2022, Hezbollah retained its thirteen seats in Lebanon’s 128-member parliament.
This is reported by the government’s national security websiteAs of September 10, 2021, it holds two cabinet positions in the Lebanese government.
‘They’re trying to stay alive’
At first, Ms. Hannaway said she was frustrated that Israel’s attacks were not condemned by the West.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia was “deeply concerned about the escalation of the conflict”.
“Lebanese citizens cannot pay the price for defeating Hezbollah, and Lebanon cannot become the next Gaza,” said Senator Wong.
After meeting with other EU leaders at a summit in Brussels, French President Emmanuel Macron urged Israel to halt military operations in Lebanon, respect its sovereignty and prevent the conflict from spreading.
Former NSW Liberal deputy mayor Hassan Awada had similar sentiments.
Smoke rises from the southern outskirts of Beirut after a strike on October 6.
(Reuters: Mohamed Azakir)
He has just learned that nine of his relatives have been killed in recent airstrikes in southern Lebanon.
He was devastated by the news. His other family members have been displaced.
“I don’t know what their future holds. They are just trying to stay alive,” Awada said.
He wondered why no one had intervened in the Israeli bombing of Lebanon and subsequent invasion of its south.
“As a country in Australia, we are very big on human rights and international law and so on,” he said.
Fire and smoke rise over Beirut’s southern suburbs after an attack, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces this week. (Reuters: Abdallah Dalsh)
Mr Awada, who lived in Lebanon until he was 22, said he felt the recent attacks on the south “on a personal level”.
“I lived through the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, but also the occupation of southern Lebanon and the brutality of the Israeli occupation,” he said.
He said he saw dozens of friends and family die during those wars.
‘No missiles under their houses’
Destroyed buildings in Beirut after recent airstrikes in the Lebanese capital. (AP: Hassan Ammar)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the people of Lebanon that the war is not against them, but against Hezbollah.
In a speech to the United Nations on September 27 this year, he accused Hezbollah of putting a “missile in every kitchen” of the Lebanese people and a “missile in every garage.”
Battoul, a Sydney resident, said she has lost several family members and friends in Israel’s attacks on eastern Lebanon, Baalbeck and southern Lebanon.
“There were no rockets under their houses, as the Israeli prime minister said,” she said.
Israel insists it has only targeted Hezbollah members and its infrastructure.
Professor Laachir said Netanyahu’s comments at the UN were questionable given the continued deaths of civilians in Gaza.
In a new report, A UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said Israel has pursued a coordinated policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system and committed war crimes with brutal and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.
It found that Israeli security forces had “intentionally killed, detained and tortured medical personnel and attacked medical vehicles.”
“These actions constitute the war crimes of intentional killing and assault and the destruction of protected property of civilians and the crime against humanity of extermination,” the report said.
The commission also found that Palestinian armed groups were responsible for war crimes.
Battoul says it is only natural for her country to resist an invasion. (Delivered)
Battoul, who asked ABC to use only her first name, said her slain relatives were innocent civilians and not legitimate targets.
“It was just older people with their children just getting their stuff ready to leave and they bombed their house,” she said.
The recent attacks have made it too difficult for her to go to work.
“I couldn’t face people because they don’t really understand what this feels like,” she said.
Professor Laachir said she was concerned that the Lebanese community would watch from a distance if the war in Lebanon continued.
“The Lebanese people in Australia still have strong ties to their homeland … if these attacks on Lebanon continue at a similar pace to the massacres of civilians in Gaza, this will be a major concern for the Lebanese and Arab people,” she said.
Batoul said it was “painful” to watch.
A large majority of her family in Lebanon have had to leave their homes.
“My aunt is currently displaced in an area where she is still trying to find a home and where people are taking advantage.”