In the shadow of the looming full scale war between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanese citizens continue to make their way to Beirut’s international airport in hopes of fleeing to safety.
While it is still not known how wide of a war is coming to the region, Iran and its proxies have made it clear – they are preparing to attack Israel on multiple fronts as a retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah’s number two in Beirut, Fuad Shukr and Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week.
Israel has made it clear that they will respond immediately and severely to any organized attack by Iran and its proxies. Although Hezbollah has been attacking Israel since October 8th, it has kept its attack to the upper Galilee and the Golan. Hezbollah has now made it clear that it will direct its attacks to far deeper locations and Israeli civilian centers like Tel Aviv and Haifa.
The region stands on the precipice of full war that may bring in Turkey, Russia, and the Iraqi Shiite militias besides the actors already involved. The Lebanese citizens fleeing their country know what this means and for Lebanon. Lebanon as a country barely exists now – if there is regional war – it will never truly exist again.
When Egypt said recently that the regional structure is on the verge of collapse – they were not lying, its only a matter of time and that time is approaching very fast.