Fifteen-year-old Ali Al-Hady begs his father to let him in to his room, which was hit by four Israeli missiles during the 34-day conflict between Hezbollah and Israel.
His father says it’s just too dangerous.
“My father wouldn’t let me inside my bedroom because he suspected some cluster bombs were still under the rubble after he found an unexploded missile in the backyard and cluster bombs in our neighbour’s garden,” Ali told IRIN.
He wanted to salvage some of his books and notes, left behind when he and his family fled their home in Kfarkila, 90km south of Beirut and adjacent to the Israel-Lebanon border. They went 20km north-east to Hasbaya, where they stayed with relatives.
From his bedroom window, his father looked at an Israeli checkpoint, from where missiles are believed to have been fired at the two-storey house.
“I left my schoolbag, my notes and all of my books inside the drawers, on my computer table and over the bed. Some of them were burned [by the rocket attacks], others thrown out of the balcony and lie on the floor in the garden. What will I do when they open the schools again? I still have to study for my official exams.”
Ali says the view from his bedroom window shows the Galilee Finger colony in Israel, close to where he says the missiles came from. “Our hometown, Kfarkila, is very close to the border, and we hear the Israeli warplanes all the time. We used to pass by the Fatima Gate [a border crossing to Israel] on our way to school. I don’t like the town any more, and once I get my books back I’m telling my father I want to leave.”
MC/SZ/ED
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
