Globe photojournalists in Lebanon capture three weeks of woe, and the people enduring it

Oct. 9: The Syrian scramble

By the time Globe staff photographer Goran Tomasevic was settled and ready to work in Lebanon, the number of internally displaced people in the country had surged to 1.2 million and rising. Northern cities were packed with people who had fled the Hezbollah-controlled south to escape Israeli ground forces and air strikes.

The displaced people included thousands of Syrians with a desperate plan: return to the homeland from which they fled in the 2010s, during its civil war, in the hope that they would be safer there. Mr. Tomasevic, Globe correspondent Eric Reguly and a local fixer met several of these Syrians at the Masnaa border crossing, whose main road was scarred by two big craters thanks to Israeli air strikes a week earlier. Rafa’a Elma’alami, five months pregnant, spoke of the bombardment of the refugee camp where she and her family lived in south Beirut – and her despair at what would happen next:

Oct. 10-12: North and south

The Globe sent freelancer Siegfried Modola to join Mr. Tomasevic, which allowed them to split their efforts between Beirut and the southern war zone, respectively. By then, Israel’s targets in the south had widened beyond Hezbollah: On Oct. 10, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, accused Israel of targeting three of its posts, injuring two peacekeepers. UNIFIL forces described more clashes with Israeli tanks at the peacekeepers’ headquarters in Naqoura through the weekend when Mr. Tomasevic was in Marjayoun, a Christian town whose residents were defying Israel’s orders to evacuate.

Central Beirut, meanwhile, saw its deadliest strikes yet on Oct. 10, with an estimated 22 civilian casualties in two neighbourhoods. The Israel Defense Forces said it was targeting Hezbollah’s surviving leaders, working down the list of successors to Hassan Nasrallah, whom Israel assassinated on Sept. 27.

Oct. 13-15: Dark days in Maaysrah

A Hezbollah drone killed four IDF soldiers in northern Israel on Oct. 13, wounding dozens more in what the militant group said was retaliation for Israeli attacks on Beirut – and proof that Israel’s much-touted Iron Dome air-defence system could be penetrated. The same day, the United States promised to send Israel new anti-missile technology and personnel to operate it, but warned that access to U.S. weapons funding could be cut off in 30 days unless Israel allowed humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Mr. Modola, Mr. Tomasevic and their translator set out on Oct. 14 for Maaysrah, a majority Shia village north of Beirut that was burying 12 of the 17 victims of an Israeli strike the previous weekend. They showed their credentials to local authorities and families so they could build trust before capturing the scene.

Oct. 16-18: Attack on Nabatieh

Mayor Ahmed Kahil and officials in Nabatieh, a provincial capital in southern Lebanon, were meeting to co-ordinate aid efforts on Oct. 16 when Israeli rockets blew up the municipal building, the biggest attack on a Lebanese government facility since the start of the air war. Israel said it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets around Nabatieh, which it had ordered to evacuate on Oct. 3. Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said the building was “intentionally targeted,” as government officials warned that the Lebanese state itself, not just Hezbollah, was now at risk of Israeli attack.

Mr. Tomasevic and Mr. Modola were in Nabatieh to survey the damage and photograph funerals for the victims when events in Gaza took a dramatic turn with the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in an Israeli tank assault. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it “the beginning of the day after Hamas.”

Oct. 19-21: No Sinwar, and no peace

The air war in Lebanon and northern Israel grew more, not less, intense in the days after Mr. Sinwar’s death, despite renewed international pleas for a ceasefire. On Oct. 19, Mr. Tomasevic saw Hezbollah rockets in flight toward Israel; the next day, the IDF bombarded Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters in south Beirut.

While Mr. Modola spent his days in Lebanon profiling internally displaced people in Beirut and Sidon, about 40 kilometres south of the capital, Mr. Tomasevic went back to Marjayoun on Oct. 21. The town was now mostly deserted, with many areas unreachable because of heavy shelling. When he was leaving, he found a Syrian refugee camp and spoke to people there while another Israeli air strike hit a nearby hill.

Oct. 22-24: ‘The seeds of total destruction’

South Beirut took another pounding on Oct. 22 while, in Israel, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived for his 11th Middle East tour since the start of the war in Gaza. Hezbollah ruled out any negotiations while fighting continued with Israel, and the IDF boasted of killing more Hezbollah commanders and confirmed that Hashem Safieddine, the heir apparent to Mr. Nasrallah, had died in air strikes in September.

In Mr. Modola’s home city of Paris, which he would soon return to, delegates from 70 countries met on Oct. 24 to find money to avert a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon. Mr. Mikati told the conference that, with more support, his country’s army could deploy as many as 8,000 troops in the south to help enforce a ceasefire. “The storm we are currently witnessing is unlike any other, because it carries the seeds of total destruction, not only for our country but for all human values,” he said.

Oct. 25-27: Journalists under fire

In the early hours of Oct. 25, about 18 TV journalists were settled in for the night at the Hasbaya Village Club, a guest house in southeastern Lebanon. An Israeli strike, fired without warning at about 3 a.m., killed three journalists in their sleep: broadcast technician Mohammed Rida and cameraman Ghassan Najjar from Beirut-based Al-Mayadeen TV and Wissam Qassim from the Hezbollah TV network Al-Manar. Mr. Tomasevic travelled to Mr. Najjar’s funeral later that day, while press advocacy groups called for answers from Israel.

The next day, global attention shifted to Israel’s air strikes on military installations near Tehran and western Iran, the long-awaited retaliation for the Iranian missile barrage against Israel on Oct. 1. Tehran said there was “limited damage,” somewhat easing fears of a regional escalation.

Oct. 28-30: ‘We know that the battle may be long’

As another week of war began, Lebanese and U.S. officials grew more publicly optimistic that the fighting could soon stop. Israeli broadcaster Kan published what it said was a leaked U.S. proposal for a 60-day truce. Mr. Mikati, emboldened by talks with a U.S. envoy, said on Oct. 30 that a truce could begin within “hours.” It did not. Meanwhile, Hezbollah’s new leader, Naim Qassem, said the fighting would continue until the terms of a ceasefire are acceptable to the group: “What we are doing is the bare minimum. … We know that the battle may be long.”

Oct. 31: The parting shot

It was “a beautiful, sunny day,” Mr. Tomasevic says of his final shoot in a southern village being shelled from Israel. On the other side of the border, this would be the deadliest day for civilians since the start of ground operations in Lebanon. Hezbollah rockets killed seven people, including four foreign workers.

Soldiers refused to let Mr. Tomasevic through a checkpoint, and he missed a shot of Lebanese tanks withdrawing. He helped some animals find water. His last photo is of an Israeli air strike, its column of smoke obscuring the horizon.

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With reports from Eric Reguly, Associated Press and Reuters

Photo editing by Solana Cain