Skip Nav | Home | Mobile | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Security | Support Us

World

The Unexploded Bombs of Jbah - Wed 16th Aug - Photo Report

GS | 22.08.2006 14:19 | Lebanon War 2006 | Anti-militarism | World

I am shown around the southern village of Jbah by Abir Ghamloush, a local woman who lives and works in Beirut. This is her first opportunity to return here since the Monday ceasefire. Until now, her Beirut house, which she shares with her mother, has been home to 30 refugees from fives families, three of which were from here. Jbah is home to around 8,000 local people of middle incomes and acts as a hub for a further 7,000 people from local rural communities. The schools and nursery are based in the village along with a few workshops and small businesses. Until now the place had been deserted by all but five families who stayed during the war. Looking around the village it is not hard to see why the people fled in such numbers.

.
.

.
.

.
.

.
.

.
.

.
.

.
.



Jbah is 40 miles from the border. It has been attacked before. In 1986 Abir’s father was killed here in an air strike. In the 2000 the mountain behind the village was the last place to be occupied before the Israeli withdraw. The faces of the village Martyrs adorn the lampposts along with Hizbollah flags. A sarcastic banner hangs across one bombsite with the words ‘Is this your new Middle East Mr Bush?’ written in French. This time the villagers have been lucky – there have been just seven injuries and one death. The fatality was an engineer from outside the area who was fixing a power line brought down by a bombing when another air strike hit.

I am shown the areas bombed this time round and they are all residential and of little or no strategic importance. We meet Abir’s cousin Sahar who along with her husband is trying to salvage carpets and furniture from the rubble of her home. For five years they had planned and gradually built this house. They had lived in it for just five months before it was destroyed. I am amazed by her resilience. She laughs and jokes with neighbours as her husband picks his way through the devastation. These people are still celebrating their survival and the humiliation suffered by Israel on the ground in the south. This time the village has not been occupied and the casualties have been far lower.

The bombing here seems to have been quite random, with Israeli pilots selecting buildings for target practice and in some cases missing completely. Some of these so-called ‘smart bombs’ have landed in the vegetation that surrounds the houses; others have hit fields and tracks. There is no evidence to suggest that there was any military personal or equipment here. Nowhere do I see any of the scorch marks left in the earth by Quatousha rocket launchers. The only military metal in the wreckage is the casing of the bombs themselves.

Further down, Souheyl Wehbeh shows me around a devastated five-story apartment block. Six holes are in the roof showing where the bombs entered before detonating in the floors below. The ground floor flat of Amine Ghamloush has no less than 3 unexploded bombs in it. The first has slammed into the base of a wall by his kitchen and is buried under a bulge in the floor. The second sticks out of the floor by his washing machine. Finally the third sits in his bathroom under a pile of tiles and masonry, having travelled through all the floors above without detonating. These ‘smart bombs’ are really not very smart at all.

Across the road I am finally shown a non-residential target for Israel’s aggression. The secondary school has a 30-foot wide 15-foot deep crater in its playground. The main building is damaged, but repair work will not begin for some time. A large unexploded bomb lies on the floor under the basins of the changing room.

The fact that I have been shown 4 potentially lethal items within 100 yards makes me wonder what kind of legacy will be left for this area. The bombing here has been light compared to other areas and yet the danger remains long after the ceasefire. Exactly how much unexploded ordinance lies under the ground and rubble is unknown. The only hope is that the villagers and children do not find out the hard way.

Words and pictures copyright the author but free to progressive media, NGOs etc.
Contact by email for details.

GS
- e-mail: guy.smallman@btinternet.com

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

/regional publish include --> /regional search include -->

World Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech