She fled the conflict and returned to find a missile in her kitchen, and the huge holes it had smashed through the whitewashed walls of her house.

Evacuation

Azba has blue tattoos on her chin, and a habit of repeating things to herself – like an old woman used to being alone. Her three sons are married and live up north, and their jobs keep them there.

Deadly Road

Following Azba’s taxi was a pickup truck packed with her relatives and neighbours, also escaping from Marwahine.

“The truck was right behind us, but they slowed down. Then we heard an explosion and the truck disappeared, so we knew it had been hit,” she said. Later she learnt that 15 children and 8 adults had been killed in the attack.

Azba spent the next month living in a school in Beirut, where conditions were very cramped. Grief for her relatives killed on the road added to her distress. 

Homecoming

After the ceasefire Azba returned to her house and found it full of rubble and shards of glass. A bomb had torn through her home, leaving consecutive holes like a maggot eating an apple. She found the spent missile in her kitchen.

Azba set to work clearing up the mess by herself. Her husband had died 25 years ago, and her neighbours were busy with their own damaged homes.

She rescued dusty mattresses and bedding from beneath the rubble. Her most precious discovery was a bottle of olive oil, from her own olives - still intact. “Thank God, He saved my olive oil for me!”

Hard Times

Azba doesn’t know how she will repair her home before winter sets in. “I’m depending upon God,” she says. “Perhaps charitable people will help.”

The water has been cut off, so Azba borrows it from her neighbours who have a rainwater reservoir. There has been no electricity since the beginning of the war.

Azba suffers from high blood pressure. Her medication is running out and the local clinic has been shut since the war. She has enough for perhaps another 10 days and it upsets her that she doesn’t know how she will get more.

Living in Fear

Azba says she suffers psychologically from grief for her lost relatives and shock at the destruction in her village. She says she still fears the Israelis despite the ceasefire. When she hears the sound of their planes overhead, her knees get weak and she cannot stand up.

Azba cannot help crying as she confesses she cannot sleep at night because she is so afraid. “The Israelis are still here. They drive through the village at night and no-one can stop them. They can see us here now,” she says, glancing warily out of the door towards the hills.

Food

Despite her age, Azba still farms her land, growing olives and wheat for her family and herself. Like most farmers in south Lebanon, she also grows tobacco to sell.

“I used to have tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers and marrows, but they all died.”

She has received food parcels from Islamic Relief, including oil, canned food, flour, tea, sugar and powdered milk.

But food is not her main concern. When asked what she will do when her food runs out she replies, “I don’t care to eat or drink. May God help me, may God help me!”