“Our life savings … All this destruction,” said Hijazi, as he stepped into an apartment littered with shattered glass and broken furniture.
The entire building had been destroyed in a previous Israel ground invasion in 1982, during Lebanon’s civil war, displacing Hijazi for 13 years before he could rebuild and move back in.
He was displaced again in late September, as Israel dramatically ramped up its air strikes on Lebanon after a year of exchanging fire with Hezbollah mostly along the border strip.
Hijazi told Reuters he was worried about who would help him rebuild this time around. Even before the war, Lebanon had been suffering a severe economic crisis that had crippled savings.
“I want to live. This is my house, it’s 40 years old. Every corner in the house, everything in this house, means something to me,” he said.
