The business owners arrived one by one, but on a cold December morning, all were united in their mission: to save everything from the market that had been reduced to dust in this mountainous town in southern Lebanon.
A photo studio operator and his son rummaged through trash and twisted metal to recover dust-covered negatives and camera lenses. The owner of the clothing store dragged the garbage bag out from under the rod armature. And the owner of the optical shop stood on the crushed concrete slabs that had once been the roof of his business building.
“It's all gone,” said Raed Mokaled, 58, who owns a gold and watch store in the same building as his brother along with his eyewear business. “An orange fireball extinguished everything.”
Israel carried out intensive air attacks and then began land occupation Following the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against Israel, the Lebanese armed group allied with Hamas entered southern Lebanon in late September to retaliate against Hezbollah. A a fragile 60-day ceasefireSigned in November, it stopped the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
In the city of Nabatiya, which shares its name with the surrounding province, which is largely controlled by Hezbollah, Israeli strikes destroyed a historic market on October 12 at the height of the war. A few days later, another strike hit the nearby town hall. at least 16 deadAccording to Lebanese officials, including the city's mayor.
Israel he said had attacked Hezbollah targets in the region, but the claim could not be independently verified. Amnesty International reported on this found no evidence military target in the city headquarters.
The strikes on the governorate, which borders both Israel and Syria, have left behind a curtain of desolation and devastation that many Lebanese say is unlike anything they've ever seen. World Bank report is estimated Nabatieh province spent 1.5 billion dollars economic losses during the war with Israel.
On a recent morning, two weeks after the ceasefire, reporters from The New York Times visited the market as residents and business owners arrived to survey and deal with the wreckage. They said that one by one they passed through dilapidated and bombed roads to arrive at the centuries-old bazaar, which they fondly called bazaar. Once a bustling center for sellers and buyers from all over Lebanon, it is now a shell of its glorious past.
Iconic stores, like the decades-old candy store, are gone. Blown walls, broken glass and twisted steel lay everywhere. Instead of the fragrant herbs and fresh produce that many people once sought in the market, a smoky and charred smell still hung in the air.
The mannequins sat on mounds of rubble and wire. Receipts, CDs and torn sneakers littered the charred sidewalks.
“It's a disaster,” Niran Ali, 58, said as he stood amid the rubble.
For 16 years, she co-owned a children's clothing store in the market and used it to support her family of four. Now, nearly everything — about $100,000 worth of goods, he said — is gone.
“It's painful to look at the essence,” he said. “Our only hope is in God.”
Across the street, Abed Al Rauf Farhat, 34, inspected the damage to his father's photography studio. The impacts didn't completely blow the building down, but left it scarred with deep cracks, exposed beams and a leaking roof. Thick dust covered everything inside: a damaged photocopier, cameras, wooden photo frames.
Mr. Farhat's father, Hamza, opened the Amal Photo Studio Laboratory in 1982. Since then, generations of families have been coming to Nabatieh to take wedding and graduation photos. The elder Mr. Farhat, 65, also trained young photographers, including his own son, who went on to work as a photographer and videographer in the Middle East and Africa.
According to Mr. Farhat, with the damage caused by the recent strikes, an institution that is a symbol of society and collective memory has become a bitter reminder of the heavy losses of the war. “Everything is gone,” said Farhat Bey. “But my father and Nabatieh are still standing, and he'll start all over again.”
The story of the photo studio and the story of the larger market are closely related to the city's turbulent past. Israel attacked Nabatieh 1974 and 1978 and occupied For three years after occupying southern Lebanon in 1982 in response to Palestinian Liberation Organization shelling of northern Israel. He also bombed Nabatiya 1993, 1996 and during the month 2006 war clashed with Hezbollah in the region.
Hezbollah is the dominant force in the Shia-majority Nabatiya region, although the group does not have unanimous public support. Views of different streets of the city Hasan NasrullahThe Hezbollah leader, who was killed by Israel in September, is attached to walls and electricity poles.
When Israel attacked the market in 2006, business owners said an Iranian-backed group gave them some money to rebuild. This time – with Hezbollah has weakened, its military capabilities and infrastructure declined and His ally in Syria was overthrown — no one has approached them for evaluation or support, several business owners said.
Hezbollah announced in late December that it has a program to rebuild southern villages destroyed by Israeli raids. Hezbollah officials said priority would be given to families whose homes were completely or partially destroyed, but did not say when or if businesses would receive financial support.
Hezbollah also said that the task of reconstruction is a national one, and the state, which has significant power over it, has an obligation to help citizens rebuild.
“Every few years we lose everything,” said Khalil Tarhini, 67, whose lingerie and underwear shop collapsed. According to him, when his shop was damaged in 2006, Hezbollah gave him $18,000 in compensation, which is part of the more than $100,000 he lost. He said he had to sell his property to rebuild his business.
“We will come back, but it will take some time,” said Mr. Tarhini, looking at bulldozers clearing debris from where his shop once stood.
For now, the slow and tedious process of reconstruction has begun. “Together We Will Rebuild” or “It Will Come Back Better,” Arabic-language announcements and signs all over Nabatiya.
Hassan Jamal Sabboury and his family returned to the city from the capital Beirut a few hours later the ceasefire has entered into force in late November.
He said what he found and shed tears. The gas station and car wash that his grandfather first built decades ago were gone. Her apartment down the street, which she furnished with plush, cream-colored furniture, was destroyed.
But the shocks missed the underground fuel tanks, he said, giving him a chance to start over somewhere.
“We remain strong and resilient,” he said as he directed workers carrying garbage and mixing cement. He hoped the gas station would reopen in a month.
Mr. Mokaled, who is engaged in the glasses business, was not so lucky.
When he and his family returned to the market, they realized they had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. Glasses, glasses repair kits and gold cleaning equipment were broken. He said they were able to restore just over 100 of the 1,200 watches in the shop. His house was also hit and he was now staying in a one-room guest house.
Despite his overwhelming sense of disbelief, he said he had no choice but to rebuild. He and his brother have rented another shop and plan to restart their optical business on a smaller scale.
“Life must go on,” he said, his face pale and drawn. “If you stop, it means you're dead.”