Israel-Hezbollah war: Lebanon’s bombing business faces an uncertain future.

A twisted and torn metal sign stands in the middle of a three-story-high pile of rubble and burnt material in south Beirut. “Spare Parts. Jeep Cherokee,” it says.

This is the only indication that the ground floor of the destroyed building was occupied by a busy car parts dealership – one of many such businesses in the capital’s largely Hezbollah-controlled southern suburb of Dahiya. They were destroyed by heavy Israeli bombardment.

“We were so sure that we wouldn’t be affected, because of the nature of the people here – ordinary people, business owners,” said Imad Abdulhaq, staring at the destroyed building.

Abdul Haq’s garage, next door, had escaped the worst of the air raid, but he was waiting to find out if the impact would require the entire structure to be demolished.

Business owners across Lebanon are in trouble after intense clashes between Israel and Hezbollah saw Israeli bombs rain down on residential, commercial and industrial parts of the country, destroying shops, warehouses and stockpiles.

A U.S.- and French-brokered ceasefire, which largely holds, halted the war last week, but for many of the country’s business owners and workers the pain is just beginning.

“I’ve lost $20,000 and that’s my only source of income,” said Ibrahim Murtada, another car parts dealer in Dahiya whose building was hit. “I don’t know how we can survive,” he said.

Like Abdul Haque, Mortada was waiting for engineers to inspect the building, but it was clear to anyone standing below that the structure was unsafe. The top seven floors were destroyed by the direct strike. Huge slabs of concrete and loose rubble hung precariously over Mortada’s head as he tried to clear what was left of his compound.

“My business has been open here for 23 years,” he said wistfully. “We are now trusting God to help us.”

Business owners in Dahiya and beyond are also counting on Hezbollah, Lebanon’s powerful political and militant group, which has said it will this week assess damage to homes and businesses and pay people rent. Will provide cash to buy new furniture. And start rebuilding.

In the southern city of Nabatea, where its Ottoman-era market and surrounding businesses were completely destroyed, people were still waiting for Hezbollah assessors to arrive on Wednesday.

“No one has contacted us – no one from the government, no one from any group,” said Niran Ali, a 56-year-old woman whose shop, Zain Baby Fashion, had disappeared with almost all of its stock.

Scanning the wreckage, Ali noticed a pink, soot-covered pair of girls’ tracksuit bottoms hanging from a steel girder protruding from the pile. “These were mine,” she said, running her finger over the black cloth. “Perhaps they are the only thing left of my business.”

Like others in Nabitiyah, Ali had heard that Hezbollah was going to start by appraising houses (the group promised $5,000 per house to help pay rent and $8,000 to replace furniture) and then businesses. Head to, where the losses are high. .

Jalal Nasir, owner of a large complex containing a coffee shop, restaurant and library, returned to the city on the first day of the ceasefire to find the complex reduced to a charred husk by a massive airstrike across the street. He estimated that he had lost up to $250,000.

He set a small table and chair on the edge of the building’s shell, overlooking the main street and sipping his glass. “To give people hope”, he said.

As for where the money was going to come from to rebuild, “That’s the big question,” he said with a shrug. But we are waiting for Hezbollah. I am sure they will.”

The World Bank estimates that the war has cost Lebanon’s economy at least $8.5 billion. That would be a huge sum for any similar country, but for Lebanon it is on the brink of a financial crisis in 2019 and a catastrophic port explosion the following year.

After the last war with Israel, money came from Iran and the Gulf states to rebuild Lebanon in 2006. This time, it’s unclear if that faucet will turn on.

Environment Minister Nasir Yassin, head of the government’s crisis cell, told the BBC on Wednesday that there was still nothing to do with allocations for reconstruction.

“We have some good signals, some promises from our friends in Lebanon,” he said. “But we estimate that we will need billions of dollars this time. The level of destruction is probably six to 10 times greater than in 2006.

Israel has said that it was only acting against Hezbollah, not the Lebanese population, in the attacks on Nabatieh. Yassin accused the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of “urban genocide” for the widespread destruction of the city.

On a visit to Nabatieh on Wednesday afternoon, Imran Reza, the UN’s deputy special coordinator for Lebanon, told the BBC that the scale of what needed to be done was “enormous”.

“The last two and a half months, in particular, have been massively devastating,” he said. “It’s a long way back.”

The historical market of Nabatea is about 500 years old. It has come under Israeli attacks in the decades since 1978. Unlike the previous attacks, this time there was total destruction.

“This is the worst war for Nabatea, that we have seen,” said Yusuf Muzeen, who owns a clothes shop in the bazaar, as the few remaining clothes in his shop hung on rails covered in soot. He estimated that he suffered about $80,000 worth of damage.

In 2006, Hizbollah gave a substantial sum of money to the affected business owners. This time, he had no idea what he would receive, or from whom. “But we’ve lost everything,” he said. “So somebody has to give us something.”

Additional reporting by Joanna Mazzob. Photos by Joel Gunter.