'Same pain': From Gaza to Lebanon, Palestinians express solidarity with the Lebanese people

The focus of Israel's brutality has now shifted from the besieged Gaza Strip to Lebanon as Israeli warplanes carried out indiscriminate airstrikes on cities, towns and villages, killing over 500 and injuring nearly 2,000 people. 

On Monday, the Israeli army conducted a series of massacres against many southern and eastern areas in Lebanon, the most violent attacks since the outbreak of confrontations on 8 October and the largest amount of death not witnessed in Lebanon for decades. 

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's fighters responded with an intensive barrages of missiles, some of which reached Haifa, Afula and other central cities.

So far, over 550 Lebanese, including women and children, journalists and medical personnel, have been killed by the Israeli attacks and wounded more than 1,645 others, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

In addition to its widespread aerial bombardment, the Israeli army is gradually transferring its ground forces, including tanks and military vehicles from the Gaza Strip to the northern border.

In separate interviews with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the residents told The New Arab pointed out the similarities between this attack on Lebanon with Israel's war and actions in Gaza.

"The same destruction, the same displacement, and the same large number of civilian victims. It seems that Israel does not know any language other than killing and blood," said one Palestinian in Gaza. 

The sights of thousands of displacement, the closing of schools, the evacuation of homes, the destruction and intensive Israeli bombardment, triggered many of the Palestinian who fear that Lebanon will turn into a "second Gaza".

Sharing the same pain

Samira Abu al-Rish, a displaced Palestinian from Khan Yunis, remarked to TNA that she feels as if the Israeli war on Gaza was reigniting again, especially after seeing photos and videos of Lebanese refugees leaving their homes in the southern suburb.

"We see Lebanon drinking the same cup. The south, which was a refuge for years, now is a field for the blood of innocents [...] The missiles falling there take us back to the early days of Gaza, those nights filled with trembling when planes hovered over us, warning of imminent death," Abu al-Rish said. 

"Every time missiles fall on Lebanon, that initial trauma resurfaces in us; the sense that the world is disintegrating around you, that the sounds of explosions are uprooting the roots of reassurance. This pain that the people of Lebanon are experiencing is the same pain that we have known here in Gaza since the first moment the first missile fell! It is as if the war is repeating itself in other forms, but remains the same tragedy," she added. 

Hiba Dawas, from the city of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, shares a similar concern, fearing that the war on that front will continue for many months and perhaps a year as it happened in the Gaza Strip.

"I feel shocked and terrified that Israel dared to wage war on Lebanon [...] I thought that the destruction of Gaza would not be repeated in any other country, but it seems that Israel has the green light to wage wars against the Arab peoples due to the suspicious official Arab silence," said Dawas, a 33-year-old mother of three who lost her husband in an Israeli bombardment three months ago, to TNA.

"We do not know what the Arabs and their leaders are waiting for to move against Israel. We have been bleeding for more than a year, but no one moved to stop Israel and stop the destruction. I fear that they will not move to support and save Lebanon and its women, children and elderly," she said. 

For his part, wounded Palestinian artist Mohammed Totah found his own way to express solidarity with Lebanon in its confrontation with the Israel by sculpting on the sand of Gaza's shores the phrase, "Peace be upon you Beirut", accompanied by the flags of Palestine and Lebanon.

The 33-year-old father of four relies on a walking stick to move around in the sand and use it to sculpt to express his solidarity with his Lebanese brothers. He lost his right leg during the war that Israel launched on the Gaza Strip in late 2008 and early 2009.

"I did not find a way to show solidarity with our Lebanese brothers other than sculpting on sand, to convey my message and solidarity with them," Totah said to TNA while carrying around sand to work on the sculpture. 

"Lebanon is facing a barbaric Israeli aggression and we [the Gazans] are the people who can most feel what our Lebanese brothers feel," he said. 

"Because of the war, I live in the besieged Gaza Strip, which suffers from poverty, hunger and daily pain due to the difficult conditions, but that has never prevented me from expressing my solidarity with Lebanon," he explained. 

Israel's far-right is leading everyone to the abyss 

"The Israeli far right is ruling and leading the current period. It is leading the region to the abyss and wants to ignite fires," according to the Gaza-based political analyst Hussam al-Dajani. 

"The Israeli right wants to open a Lebanese front for many reasons, most notably to distract attention from the war crimes taking place inside the Gaza Strip, especially in light of the international criticism and the recent UN General Assembly resolution which called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories," al-Dajani opined to TNA. 

He noted that the timing of Israel's attack on Lebanon reflects the extent of Netanyahu's and his government's desire to expand the regional conflict, and possibly drag the US into a comprehensive war.