A Glimpse of the Situation and Tips in a State of War

Well, after General Secretary of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah spoke, heavy shooting began between AMAL/Hezbollah and Future Movement extensively. Shooting took place everywhere, in my street alone guns were shot. The neighboring street, 4 masked gunners came out and are still there. A lot of my friends reported that snipers stood up on their rooftops. Rockets were reported, and everywhere these parties are presents, a gigantic shoot-out.

I hear different shootout and explosions everywhere. I have 62 windows open on msn, the first thing I or they ask: hey how is it on your side?

I lived 10 years of my life in a civil war, ever since I closed the wooden doors of my windows, it felt like the war. RPG rockets are becoming more usable than heavy machine guns and grenade launchers.

Unlike the civil war, the world shrank in size. Two of my friends in Zqaq el Blat told me that they saw several masked gunners running in front of their balconies (both live on a first floor). Another has bunch of gunners in sa'yet el janzir shooting on Ain el Hilwi and vice versa. Earlier, it was rumored that Hezbollah armed men tried to enter Hamra. All media accuse the other parties that their militants are asking people for identification cards to know from which area a person come, then stereotype that person's party affiliations.

Such explosions last time I heard them were in Aoun's war with the Syrians in 'War of Liberation', I was 10 then. The echoes of the bullets, and mind you, sometimes you can tell how many people are shooting and if others are shooting back.

This is a full scale war in Beirut. What we are witnessing now is the rising borders of the militia cantons. Those who successfully maintain control over their streets, then they draw their new "national borders of their mini-republics". Now of course, with the presence of the cantons, it will be like a big chess board whereby one color signifies the government and the other would be the opposition. Reports of different opposing media accuse the other parties of performing "Sectarian Cleansing" whereby each majority would kick the minority. The site of refugees in Ras el Naba'a and Corniche el Mazra'a was repulsive, all political parties should pay them compensation. Now what to expect from militias when their universities students are using ak-47s?

Tips to those stuck in the hot zones:

• Make sure your doorman or yourself close the entrance of your building so that snipers won't use it and inform the rest of the neighbors about it so that their friends are not trapped.

• Stay put in your house, any moment masked gunners might come out and start shooting. Different fronts are exploding sporadically briefly.

• Make sure you lock your door, or even barricade it, close all window shutters, and stay away from them

• Shut all lights, you don’t want to be a target practice for a lunatic bored sniper, it is still risky even if the shudders are closed.

• When there is no fire, make sure to check out before going out to stockpile for necessity food.

• When moving in the street, keep looking left and right while walking with your back to wall, or at least the shoulder on the wall. In case you feel anything wrong, duck and put your hands on the head and neck.

• In case you sense some people are gunners, don’t make a sudden move, just behave normally and keep moving.