Quotes
We're still waiting for him to come out on the television at 5 p.m. and tell us that everything is okay, that we can go back home,
He was leading us. He was everything to us. We were under his wings,
she told Reuters tearfully by phone God, I hope it's not true. It's a disaster if it's true,
said Zahraa, a young woman who had been displaced overnight from Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut What's likely going to happen here is that Iran will have to do something because the red line was crossed
Dr Andreas Krieg, Assistant Professor of Defence Studies at King's College London, told MailOnline The deep entanglement between Lebanon and Hezbollah is now being tested and interrogated by those who have long opposed Hezbollah
Hezbollah was Iran's most strategically significant asset and main deterrent against Israel
Dr Burcu Ozcelik, Senior Research Fellow for Middle East Security at the Royal United Services Institute defence and security think tank (RUSI), added Any successful upgrade of Houthi capabilities would also likely draw a kinetic Israeli response.
Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor to the Counter Extremism Project and former Ambassador of the UK to Yemen, told MailOnline The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront'
He said in a statement ... state media However, this system led to these groups repeatedly trying to assert their own interests at the expense of the other groups,
But of course the army is also weakened by the national and economic crisis in Lebanon,
Lebanon was founded in the early 20th century as a state of Christian Maronites in alliance with the French as a protecting power,
says Markus Schneider, who heads the Friedrich-Ebert foundation's regional project for peace and security in the Middle East in the Lebanese capital Beirut The birth defect was that it included large areas of non-Maronite populations from the outset,
This would drag Lebanon into a civil war,
If there isn't a strong state that can take action against the centrifugal forces in its own country and institutions, then an oligarchic system can easily emerge in which everyone serves themselves,
Hezbollah has basically taken Lebanese politics hostage,
says Middle East expert Kelly Petillo of the European Council on Foreign Relations I didn't even pack any clothes, I never thought we would leave like this and suddenly find ourselves on the streets,
I'm anxious and afraid of what may happen. I left my home without knowing where I'm going, what will happen to me, and whether I will return,
I expected the war to expand, but I thought it would be limited to (military) targets, not civilians, homes, and children,
said south Beirut resident Rihab Naseef, 56, who spent the night in a church yard The bombing intensified at night and our house started shaking,
said an angry Hala Ezzedine, 55, who slept in the square after fleeing the Burj al-Barajneh neighbourhood in Dahiyeh where strikes took place What did the (Lebanese) people do to deserve this?"