MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Last night, Israeli airstrikes hit central Beirut for the first time in nearly a year of violence in the Middle East. This is a city already reeling from airstrikes Friday that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah - a man viewed by some as a hero of resistance, and others, including the U.S. government, as the head of a terrorist group. Nasrallah's death marks a turning point for the region, and many in Beirut are worried about the future. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: The day Hezbollah announced Hassan Nasrallah was dead, the city was chaos. Across the southern suburbs, there were plumes of smoke rising from buildings after fresh Israeli strikes. And when the news of Nasrallah's death hit cell phones, people wept - in their cars, on the sidewalks, along the sea wall. One young woman asked her mother, will the world continue?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Arabic).
PERALTA: UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2 == UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2 == BEIRUT RESIDENT
PERALTA: "We are strong," her mother answered.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Arabic).
PERALTA: The day after, life did go on. An eerie calm took over the city. At times, it was so quiet, all you could hear was the buzz of the Israeli drones circling.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRONES BUZZING)
PERALTA: Hassan Nasir, who is 57, squinted at the sky, trying to spot them. He fled his home in the south last week. He spent 14 hours on the road trying to get to this school in Beirut, which is now the shelter, but the bombing followed him - first, on the road.
HASSAN NASIR: (Through interpreter) People are being bombed left and right, people on every single part of the streets. And people are being killed.
PERALTA: And then, on Friday, the school shook from the Israeli attack that assassinated the longtime Hezbollah leader.
NASIR: (Through interpreter) So here, everyone was completely afraid and terrified. The children were screaming, running around. It was chaos over here.
PERALTA: War is not new to Lebanon. Israel fought wars here in '78-'82 and 2006. Lebanon's own horrific civil war ended in 1990, but this feels different to Nasir.
NASIR: (Through interpreter) Every single day, there's a surprise. We don't know what's going to happen. It's completely uncertain for us.
PERALTA: Matthew Levitt, who wrote the book "Hezbollah: The Global Footprint Of Lebanon's Party Of God," is just as surprised as everyone else. As Levitt explains it, with these attacks, Israel has pressed the reset button in the region. Two weeks ago, Hezbollah was stronger than the Lebanese military.
MATTHEW LEVITT: With somewhere near maybe 150,000 different types of rockets, including short- and medium-range rockets that could hit well into Israel.
PERALTA: Levitt says after the last two weeks of Israeli attacks, many of those rockets may be gone. And not only is Hassan Nasrallah, the commander in chief, gone, but so are many of the organization's top lieutenants. To Levitt, this is an opportunity for the Lebanese military to take control of Southern Lebanon from Hezbollah and try to implement U.N. Resolution 1701, which sought to settle disputes after the 2006 war.
LEVITT: I anticipate that any effort to implement 1701 is going to have to be accompanied by force.
PERALTA: Another complication - Hezbollah is more than just a militant group. It provides religious services and social services - even hospital services.
LEVITT: Like it or not, Hezbollah is part of the fabric of Lebanon.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN BLARING)
PERALTA: On the streets, that is what you hear.
RANDA FATALLAH: (Through interpreter) Sayyid Hassan is the whole world. Sayyid Hassan is the leader of this nation. Sayyid Hassan is the iman of the entire nation and the world that we live in.
PERALTA: Randa Fatallah is a teacher in Beirut. She's afraid of what's to come, she says. But Hezbollah and its late leader are on the right side of history, she says. And for that, she's willing to give up everything. Eyder Peralta, NPR News, Beirut. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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