Eyewitness report from Lebanon: 'surrounded by the sound of war'

An escalation of bombing raids has meant that Pat Gaffney has received fewer updates from her friend in Lebanon. In the past week the situation has become even more nerve wracking for the family.

Messaging her friend, Pat wrote: "life sounds very grim yet you manage to keep a sense of proportion - important for the children! They are lucky to have you as a mother. Being 'surrounded' by the sounds and destruction of war."

The response: I do my best to keep my mind alert and make wise decisions and weigh things. Just a minute ago the Israeli army issued a new evacuation order, it goes up to Zahrani river, which is eight km south of Saida. We pray some sort of cease fire or agreement can be reached very, very soon. These are the contents of our coffee table nowadays, most importantly a detailed map of Lebanon on the Southern part to monitor evacuation orders, a map of Beirut and an Atlas to give a wider image. On a positive note, we learn a lot of geography during wars!

After a gap of several days Pat received this message on 21 March:

Hello Pat, the situation is getting worse. Saturday morning, that is one week ago, a flat in our area was hit by missiles, targeting a person from Hamas. This building was about 500 metres from ours. He is someone who rented this flat by himself (no family) works abroad and just arrived 48 hrs prior to the hit!!! Two days ago, a car was hit by the seaside in the middle of Saida. This belonged to another Hamas person. The same has been happening in Beirut, targeting Hamas and Hezbollah people outside the Shia/Hizballah geographical areas of Beirut.

In terms of mass destruction of whole towers and buildings, it is going on in the South of Lebanon and in the Beirut Dahiye area. Roaring Israeli fighter jets roam the skies in Saida day and night.

In terms of ground entry of Israeli troops into Lebanon, there seems to be a lot of fighting in the villages closer to the borders. The evacuation orders still stand at eight kilometres south of Saida.

So, we are home, all my family and friends who ordinarily live in Saida are still in their homes. I am getting more nervous by the hour now. This is too much, no glimpse of anything positive in the near future. The scale of destruction is unimaginable. With this war I am more inclined to travel than stay. And that is absolutely not me. I do not run away. I cannot let Israel and this time also Hezbollah push me out.

Yesterday, Friday, was the first day of Eid el Fitr, we had lunch at my parents with my siblings and their children (my older sister has two married sons now). We haven't seen each other since the war began three weeks ago. We were talking about what might happen and what options are available and what should we do. It was the worst of talks of course. I was very small child when the Israelis occupied Saida by ground troops in the early eighties. I don't have a memory of that time, but I can tell how petrifying the time was from my Mum's face yesterday. She suddenly had a very dry mouth and almost choked with fear.

Then the weight of reality hits. E is 16 yrs old. If and when the Israelis enter Saida they will round up all young men for interrogation, humiliation and God knows what. This happened in 1982. My parents and the whole extended family of uncles and cousins fled prior to that to the mountains. An uncle had an empty building at the time where they all stayed. Very difficult and testing times. For the first time the children say we should go to London. And probably we should. I am looking at flights whether direct or via Istanbul or Larnaca, Cyprus.