'I don't know how we'll survive': War-damaged Lebanese businesses face the unknown

Wedged into the middle of a three storey-high pile of rubble and charred possessions in southern Beirut is a twisted and cracked metal sign. “Spare parts. Jeep Cherokee,” it says.

It is the only indication that the ground floor of this destroyed building had been occupied by a busy car parts dealership – one of many such businesses destroyed by Israel’s heavy bombing of Dahieh, the largely Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of the capital.

“We were so confident we wouldn’t be hit, because of the nature of the people here – ordinary, people, business owners,” said Imad Abdelhak, staring up at the smashed building.

Abdelhak’s garage, next door, had survived the worst of the air strike, but he was waiting to find out if the whole structure would have to be torn down because of the impact.

All over Lebanon, business owners are reeling after an intense conflict between Israel and Hezbollah saw Israeli bombs rain down on residential, commercial and industrial parts of the country, destroying shops, warehouses and stocks of goods.

A US- and French-brokered ceasefire, which is largely holding, halted the war last week, but for many of the country’s business owners and workers the pain is only beginning.

“I have lost $20,000 and my only source of income,” said Ibrahim Mortada, another car parts dealer in Dahieh whose building was hit. “I have no idea how we can survive,” he said.

Like Abdelhak, Mortada was waiting for engineers to assess the building, but it was clear to anyone standing underneath it that the structure was unsafe. The top seven floors had been destroyed by a direct strike. Huge slabs of concrete and loose rubble hung precariously over Mortada’s head as he attempted to clear up what was left of his premises.

“My business has been open here for 23 years,” he said, dejectedly. “We are counting on God to help us now.”

The business owners of Dahieh and beyond are also counting on Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese political and militant group, which said it will begin this week to assess the damage to homes and businesses and dole out cash for people to pay rent, buy new furniture, and begin to rebuild.

In the southern city of Nabatieh on Wednesday, where its Ottoman-era market and surrounding businesses were completely destroyed, people were still waiting for the Hezbollah assessors to arrive.

“Nobody has contacted us – nobody from the government, nobody from any group,” said Niran Ali, a 56-year-old woman whose shop, Zen Baby Fashion, had disappeared with virtually all of its stock.

Scanning the rubble, Ali caught sight of a pink, soot-covered pair of girls’ tracksuit bottoms, hanging from a steel girder jutting out of the heap. “These were mine,” she said, running her finger across the blackened fabric. “Maybe they are the only thing left of my business.”

Like others in Nabatieh, Ali had heard that Hezbollah was going to begin by assessing homes (the group has pledged $5,000 per household to help pay for rent, and $8,000 to replace furniture) and then move on to businesses, where the losses are much higher.

Jalal Nasser, who owned a large complex containing a coffee shop, restaurant and library, returned to the city on the first day of the ceasefire to find the complex transformed into a charred husk by a massive air strike across the road. He estimated he had lost up to $250,000.

He set up a small table and chair on the edge of the shell of the building, overlooking the main street, and smoked his shisha. “To give people hope”, he said.

As for where the money was going to come from to rebuild, “that is the big question,” he said, shrugging. “But we are waiting for Hezbollah. I’m sure they will give.”

The World Bank estimates this war has caused at least $8.5bn worth of damage to Lebanon’s economy. It would be a huge sum for any similar nation, but for Lebanon it comes on the heels of a financial crisis in 2019 and the devastating port blast the following year.

In the aftermath of the previous war with Israel, in 2006, money poured in from Iran and from gulf states to rebuild Lebanon. This time around, it is unclear if that tap will turn on.

“There is nothing yet in terms of allocation for reconstruction,” Nasser Yasin, the environment minister and head of the government’s crisis cell told the BBC on Wednesday.

“We have some good indications, some pledges from friends of Lebanon,” he said. “But we estimate we are going to need billions of dollars this time. The level of destruction is probably six to 10 times what it was in 2006.”

Israel has said it was acting solely against Hezbollah in its strikes on Nabatieh, and not against the Lebanese population. Yasin accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of "urbicide" for its widespread destruction of the city.

On a visit to Nabatieh on Wednesday afternoon, Imran Riza, the UN’s deputy special co-ordinator for Lebanon, told the BBC the scale of what needed to be done was “enormous”.

“The past two and a half months, particularly, have been massively destructive,” he said. “It is a very long road back.”

The historic market in Nabatieh dates back about 500 years. It has repeatedly come under attack from Israel in the decades since 1978. Unlike previous attacks, this time the destruction was total.

“This is the worst for Nabatieh, the worst war we have seen,” said Yusuf Mouzzain, who owned a clothes shop in the market. In his shop, a few surviving clothes hung on a rail, coated in soot. He estimated he had suffered about $80,000 worth of damage.

In 2006, Hezbollah gave a good sum to the affected business owners. This time, he had no idea what they would receive, or who from. “But we have lost everything, he said. “So someone has to give us something.”

Additional reporting by Joanna Mazjob. Photographs by Joel Gunter.