Maryam Farhat, Lebanon "Then another rocket struck her home, killing her children"

Standing in what remains of the main square in Aitaroun, a town 80km south of Beirut and just 15km north of Israel, Maryam Farhat described her life over the past five weeks as a nightmare.

She and the rest of her family fled Aitaroun during a 48-hour partial suspension of Israeli aerial attacks, which started on 31 July. This allowed them time to find temporary refuge in the neighbouring village of Rmeish.

Finding relative safety but no supplies for them there, they went to Sidon, 40km south of the capital, where they remained until the United Nations-brokered ceasefire came into effect on 14 August.

Having moved from town to town for refuge through much of the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, she has now returned home only to find her house destroyed and her home town almost uninhabitable.

"We’ve been back several days now," Farhat said. "But my house is destroyed, and there is very little on which we can survive. All the pharmacies have been bombed, as have all the shops. We have no electricity or water supply. We are reliant on aid, which does not always come. It’s a nightmare.

"For the moment, I'm staying with relatives. But even though their house was not damaged during the war, they have neither electricity nor water. It is very difficult for all of us. I don't know how long we will be able to put up with this situation."

Farhat said she and her family had originally planned to stay in Aitaroun throughout the conflict, but then the death of her sister and her nephews during an air strike there forced them to rethink.

"As the fighting got fiercer and the bombing more frequent and violent, I knew very bad things would start to happen here. Then, 10 days into the bombing, my sister went looking for food for her children and died in an Israeli bombing," she said as she wept. "Then another rocket struck her home, killing her children."

SA/SZ/ED