The Cold Summer-AF

I woke up to a startling news announcement—the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers early in the morning was leading Lebanon into a potential war. I was scared at the moment. I wasn’t in Beirut at the time; I was in Tripoli, renting a chalet for the summer. My mom quickly called my dad because he was not with us. He was in Beirut for work, and he explained the situation to her.

"It not as bad as it seems. It's only a misunderstanding, this will all blow over in a week," said my dad.

It didn’t.

A week into the war Hezbollah's leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah made his first speech that amazed many when he announced that he will bomb the Israeli warship that had been attacking Lebanese infrastructure, and a minute later this warship was hit, taking with it dozens of Israeli soldiers.

A couple of weeks into the war, I got used to hearing warplanes in the sky, but I still didn’t hear the sound of bombings, and I used to thank God for this blessing. However one day…it happened. We were at my aunt's house in Tripoli. We had just returned from a walk, and were all sitting out side in the garden when the sound of warplanes suddenly filled the air, and I have to admit that frightened me a bit.

"Why are the sounds so low and close?" my mom asked.

My aunt replied" It's probably nothing." However, at the end of her sentence, we heard a loud boom nearby. We jumped out of our chairs and ran up to the house, but we didn’t enter. Another bombing sound struck, but we didn’t know from where and how far it was. My cousins were crying, so was my mom, but my two aunts were calm and kept their cool. Then we hear the defenses firing at the planes which made my mom more terrified. Then silence. It was at this moment that I felt that there was truly a war going on in Lebanon.

We entered the house and turned on the news. The Tripoli port was announced bombed, and it was at this moment that silence took over and we as a family knew that Lebanon was no longer safe. It was time to head back to the chalet but I didn’t want to leave. I was afraid of another bombing, but I had to go.

As I arrived there the once full parking lot for cars was slowly but surely starting to empty. Some people were exiting their chalets with boxes and bags; others were confused about their next step. I went down by the pool and heard what the people were doing. Most of them were saying their good-byes, and others were discussing the situation. "I heard that they are planning to bomb the capital," said a guy. I went down to a computer network and the rumors of more bombings filled the room. I quickly got up to my chalet because I had enough. I lied in my bed thinking of what was to become of my homeland? Wasn’t northern Lebanon supposed to be the safest region? The questions never ended, but I eventually fell asleep.

I woke up the next day and went out to my balcony. In the morning the pool would usually be filled, however this time, it was empty. People were scared, so no one was leaving their chalet. Days passed and Israel kept bombing everywhere, even in Tripoli, and they bombed the main sources, like telephone signals and oil factories. It was like the old saying "All hell broke loose". We started running low on fuel so we went to Spinney's supermarket to get more. When we arrived there, the place was a nightmare. It was like a jungle. You couldn’t find a place to park, and the supermarket was filled with people getting food to stock because no one knew when the war was going to end.

The days passed, and people were becoming more and more terrified. I thought this war would never stop, but finally one day more rumors flooded the air. Rumors of a "cease fire" were being spread around. People called one another to congratulate them on the victory. Finally it was over.

The war taught me some things I'll never forget and now I don’t think I'm scared of anything. This war opened my eyes and made me realize that the feud between Hezbollah and Israel is not over, and it may have just begun.