Is that israel..... again?

It was so peaceful living in the 'Dahia", the Shi'te neighborhood in Beirut Surely, the streets were noisy and crowded with cars and people, but it was a welcome relief from the violent crime that was so rampant in the U.S. Then one morning, a short time before fajr prayer I awakened to what I thought was a thunderstorm. I opened my eyes to see if it was time to pray. I decided it was still a bit early and closed my eyes, thinking "What a lovely rainstorm". A short time later, I was awakened again by a loud noise. I woke up enough to realize it was summertime and it doesn't even rain at that time of the year in Lebanon. I heard a loud explosion, felt the building shake a little and realized that we were being bombed, most likely by Israel. I got up, put on my hijab and as I heard planes flying over and bombs dropping nearby. I thought "I don't have any experience in being bombed, what are we supposed to do?" I remembered that a friend once told me if a war started, to go downstairs in my building and I would find my neighbors there. I thought someone might need some help so I started down the dark stairway. When I reached the bottom, my neighbors were there. Most people looked frightened but o.k. One woman whose husband said she had been through bombings before was screaming and crying. All efforts to calm her down were useless. There was one man who spoke English and he explained that yes, we were being bombed by Israel and that it was completely unexpected. We waited there together and as we stood there, we heard planes flying over.The sound was distinctively different than any other planes I had heard before.We could hear the engines coming from far off in the distance. Then we would hear them coming in closer. Finally we heard the sound of the bombs falling and then the explosions. They were bombers and they were on a mission! Some were coming from the area of the sea and some from the land.As the bombs dropped all around us, We were helpless to do anything. Someone from Hezbollah came by to check on us, to see if we had any wounded and to tell us which part of the building to stand in. Somehow I knew that if a bomb fell on the building it didn't matter where we were standing, we were finished! Since we were in the Shi'a neighborhood we knew that we were the prime target area and this wasn't going to be easy. As the bombs continued falling, my neighbor asked me"How does it feel to have your government paying for these bombs?" I replied "My government is the government of Ahlul Bayt (a.s.) and they don't do such things!"

More of the war and its aftermath.... continued