Lebanon's Shiite Muslims are paying a high price in the war between Israel and Hezbollah

BEIRUT (AP) – Lebanese civilians who have been devastated by Israel's war with Hezbollah are Shiite Muslims, and many of them believe they are being unfairly punished because they believe they share the faith of Hezbollah militants and often live in the same neighborhoods.

“This is clear,” said Wael Murtada, a young Shiite man who watched anxiously as emergency workers searched through the rubble after an Israeli airstrike destroyed his uncle's two-story home and killed 10 people. “Who else is being attacked?”

Israel has focused its attacks on the south and north-east of Lebanon and the south of Beirut. This is where many of Hezbollah's soldiers work, and their families live together with many Shiites who are not members of the group.

Israel insists its war is on Hezbollah and not the Lebanese people – or the Shiite religion. It says it is only looking for members of an Iran-backed militant group to try to end its annual campaign of firing rockets across the border. But Israel's stated intentions mean nothing to people like Murtada as increasing numbers of Shiites die in the fiercest fighting in recent months.

Shiites do not simply measure the suffering of their community in death and injury. Every block of the coastal city of Tire has been bewitched. Large parts of the historic market in the city of Nabatiyeh, which dates back to the Ottoman period, have been destroyed. Also in Baalbek, airstrikes damaged the city's famous Palmyra hotel, which opened in the late 19th century, and a home dating from the Ottoman era.

“Lebanese Shias are being punished collectively. Their urban areas are being destroyed, and their monuments and cultural buildings are being destroyed,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.

As Shiites flee their war-torn villages and suburbs, the conflict is increasingly following them to other parts of Lebanon, and this is fueling tensions.

Dozens of people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Christian, Sunni and Druze areas where Shiite refugees have taken refuge. Many residents in these areas now think twice before offering shelter to displaced people for fear they may have links to Hezbollah.

“The Israelis are targeting all of Lebanon,” said Wassef Harakeh, a Beirut lawmaker, who ran against Hezbollah in the country's parliamentary elections in 2022 and whose office was recently demolished by an Israeli airstrike. He believes that part of Israel's intention is to inflame tensions in the small Mediterranean country, which has a long history of sectarian conflict although different groups live peacefully together these days.

Some Shiites say statements by the Israeli army over the years have strengthened suspicions that their community is being targeted as a way to put pressure on Hezbollah.

One often-cited example is the so-called Dahiyeh doctrine, which was first promoted by Israeli generals during the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. It refers to the areas south of Beirut where Hezbollah is headquartered and where all residential blocks, bridges and shopping centers were destroyed in both wars. Israel says Hezbollah hides weapons and fighters in such areas, making them legitimate military targets.

A video released by the Israeli military last month was interpreted by Shiites as further evidence that little distinction is being made between Hezbollah soldiers and Shiite civilians.

Speaking in a village in southern Lebanon that he did not name, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari called it a “terrorist stronghold. This is a Lebanese town, a Shiite town built by Hezbollah.” As he looked at a house and pointed to a pile of hand grenades, guns, night goggles and other military equipment, Hagari said: “Every house is a terrorist base.”

Another army spokesman disputed the idea that Israel is trying to blur the line between combatants and civilians. “Our war is with the terrorist group Hezbollah and not with the people of Lebanon, regardless of where they come from,” said Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. He denied that Israel was deliberately trying to disrupt the Lebanese social scene, and pointed to Israel's evacuation warnings to the people before the airstrikes as a measure to reduce the damage.

Many Lebanese, including Shiites, blame Hezbollah for their suffering, while criticizing Israel's bombings. Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel last year a day after Hamas attacked Israel and started a war in Gaza; this is contrary to the group's promises to use weapons to defend Lebanon only.

Since last October, more than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, and women and children accounted for more than 900 of the dead, according to the Ministry of Health. More than a million people have been evicted from their homes. Shiites, who make up a third of Lebanon's 5 million people, have borne the brunt of this suffering. Israel says it killed more than 2,000 Hezbollah members last year.

The death and destruction in Lebanon increased dramatically in mid-September, when Israeli airstrikes began targeting Hezbollah leaders, and in early October, when Israeli ground forces attacked.

Early in the war, Israeli airstrikes killed about 500 Hezbollah members but caused very little damage. But since late September, airstrikes have destroyed entire buildings and homes, and in some cases killed dozens of civilians when the target was a single Hezbollah member or official.

In another bloody day, on September 23, Israeli airstrikes killed nearly 500 people and caused hundreds of thousands of people — again, mostly Shiites — to flee their homes in fear.

Murtada's relatives fled south of Beirut in late September after the airstrikes ended. They moved 22 kilometers (about 14 miles) east of the city, to the Druze mountain village of Baalchmay to stay at Murtada's uncle's house.

Then, on November 12, the house they were taking refuge in was demolished without warning. The strike killed nine relatives – three men, three women and three children – and a domestic worker, Murtada said.

The Israeli military said the home was being used by Hezbollah. Murtada, who lost his grandmother and aunt in the strike, said that no one at home is connected to these militants.

Hezbollah has long boasted of its ability to deter Israel, but the latest war has proven otherwise and has seriously damaged its leadership.

Some Shiites fear that Hezbollah's decline will result in the entire community being marginalized from politics once the war is over. But others believe it could provide a political opening for diverse Shiite voices.

Talks to stop talks to end Israel-Hezbollah seem to have gained momentum this past week. Some critics of Hezbollah say that the group could have accepted months ago the conditions that are currently under review.

This would have saved Lebanon “destruction, martyrdom and losses worth billions (of dollars),” Lebanese lawmaker Waddah Sadek, a Sunni Muslim, wrote in X.

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Associated Press writer Tia Goldenberg contributed to this report from Tel Aviv, Israel.