“I can still hear the Israeli drones breaking through the sound barrier. I have developed a phobia,” Lebanese Joumana Sleiman-Haidar, who recently arrived to France escaping the war in her country, told AFP.
Joumana and her husband Jihad are in Paris since October 2, ten days after the Israeli army began an intensive airstrike campaign on the pro-Iranian Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon.
The couple wanted to visit their children in France for a few days, but later decided to extend their stay.
“We couldn’t remain in Lebanon because we were neither able to go to work nor stay at home,” Jihad, 64, said sadly.
Currently residing at his children's apartment in Boulogne, on the outskirts of Paris, Jihad added: “We heard bombing all the time, almost every day.”
Like this couple, the war continues to haunt Christelle Kabboul, who arrived in Paris on October 13 to continue her university studies.
“In France, the noises of the city, the subway and the slamming of doors frighten me every time,” she said in a trembling voice. “In Lebanon, I could not sleep. Now I have nightmares of children dying, of bombings and also of insomnia.”
The 29-year-old woman resided just a few kilometers away from the Israeli strikes that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 27.
“I heard a succession of bombings. It was like an earthquake,” she said. “I hid under my desk.”
Christelle, now engaged with in a group that supports Lebanese who were displaced from Lebanon, said she has long hesitated before traveling to Paris, where the “guilt” of having left her country now embraces her.
In mid-October, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said some 3,000 French nationals have left Lebanon and “returned to France” due to the conflict between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah.
Last Wednesday, France, via Barrot, reiterated that it will not abandon Lebanon and that French diplomacy is fighting, so far without much success, for a ceasefire.
But several Lebanese, who spoke with AFP, expressed dismay that their relatives cannot request visas to France.
Yara Gharbieh, who has been in Perpignan for a year, said she has tried for more than a month to get an appointment to bring her mother and younger sister to France.
“It didn't work. The TLScontact website, the only agency authorized to issue French visas to Lebanese nationals, seems to be opening up slots by little,” she told AFP.
“We thought France was standing by us,” she added.
Asked by AFP, the French Foreign Ministry said its staff at the Beirut consulate are “fully mobilized” for French nationals, with the visa service “currently focused on priorities.”
