Discontent with Iran is growing in Lebanon as the escalating conflict between Hezbollah and Israel continues, already displacing over one million people and reducing homes to rubble.
Though Iran is known to fund Hezbollah, it has so far been reluctant to intervene, even after Israel launched a ground offensive into Lebanon early on Tuesday.
The streets of Beirut are now lined with displaced people, particularly the famous Corniche seaside promenade in the Central District.
Here, families who have lost everything following days of Israeli airstrikes are left to fend for themselves, and anti-Iran sentiment is beginning to grow.
Hana Mrad has been sleeping in her car with her two daughters since Friday, when Israeli airstrikes took out Hezbollah commander Hassan Nasrallah.
The 43-year-old housewife’s loyalty to Iran is now slipping as she’s left trying to survive with her family. She told The Telegraph: “If Iran had wanted to help, they would have helped a long time ago. Everyone has abandoned us and now Iran has, too.”
This sentiment was echoed by an anonymous man who suggested Iran handed over Nasrallah to the Israelis. He raged: “Iran sacrificed Nasrallah, that is the only explanation.
“Iran organised the meeting where Nasrallah was killed and told Israel where he would be. How else would Israel know where he was and what other reason can there be for Iran refusing to fight with Hezbollah?”
The Hezbollah commander was killed when Israel unleashed a barrage of strikes on one of the militia’s secret complexes in southern Beirut.
Strikes in Lebanon that very same day came just after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the United Nations in New York. He reportedly ordered the strikes from the UN building itself, moments after dismissing calls for a ceasefire.
Since Friday, the Israeli campaign in Lebanon has been ongoing. Shia Muslim Haidar fled his home in southern Beirut, saying: “Hezbollah sacrificed itself for Iran, but Iran will not sacrifice for Hezbollah.”
The ground invasion that began on Tuesday morning will only leave more people in Haidar’s position as Israeli airstrikes have intensified, while Hezbollah has fired rockets deeper into northern Israel.
Hezbollah has not commented on the Israeli military announcement that it had started a ground incursion. Overnight and on Tuesday morning, the group said it targeted groups of soldiers in several Israeli border areas with artillery shelling and rockets.
