Habib Baidoun, an 82-year-old shoemaker, carefully sweeps glass in front of his shoe store in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon.
He observes journalists and official visitors arriving at the site where Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri was assassinated.
“We miraculously survived,” he tells Asharq Al-Awsat, pointing to the shattered glass and stones from the building where he resides after the explosions.
Baidoun clears the debris, reopens his shop, just like dozens of other businesses near the targeted site.
Baidoun is one of hundreds startled by the sudden blast near the northern suburb entrance.
However, none of them possess a complete narrative or confirmed information about what happened, despite all witnesses agreeing they heard simultaneous explosions, prompting a large portion of residents to evacuate their nearby homes “fearing Israeli airstrikes might have begun.”
Locals report that traffic congestion reached unprecedented levels after the attack on exit routes towards Beirut city, approximately 5 kilometers away, fearing the explosions might precede consecutive bombings.
Life goes on for residents at the explosion site, despite the closure of the street to vehicles by the Lebanese army and civil defense, transforming it into an evidence collection area.
Next to the targeted location, two sweet shops and a tobacco store have reopened their doors, with customers entering and exiting as usual.
The shelling did not cause significant damage to the stores or destroy the buildings, reinforcing the belief that it was precise and sophisticated enough to hit the targets under the roofs without causing major destruction.
Returning residents to the area on Wednesday morning express conflicting emotions.
Some believe that the danger has passed “once we learned it was an assassination,”
suggesting “no consequences or continued airstrikes.”
Others, however, cannot hide their concern about the area turning into an open field for Israeli airstrikes for the first time in at least four years, since the Israeli drone explosion in the Maaouad area in August 2019.
