Written by Abdelaziz Boumzar and Maya Gebeily
SIDON, Lebanon (Reuters) – Families in southern Lebanon blocked highways in the north on Monday, fleeing Israeli bombardment for an uncertain future with children huddled in parents' laps, suitcases strapped to the roofs of cars and black smoke billowing behind them.
Dozens of cars, vans and trucks were loaded with goods and full of people, sometimes several generations in the car, while other families had fled quickly, taking only their essentials as bombs fell from above.
“When there were strikes in the morning in the houses, I took all the important papers and we left. The strikes around us. They were terrifying,” said Abed Afou, whose Yater village was heavily attacked this morning.
Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah have been trading fire across the border since the war in Gaza began last year with an attack by Hezbollah's ally Hamas, but Israel stepped up its military campaign last week.
On Monday, as the shelling continued in many parts of Lebanon, people received pre-recorded calls from the Israeli army telling them to leave their homes for safety.
Afou, who had been living in Yater since the start of the war even though it was only five kilometers from the Israeli border, decided to leave as explosions began to hit residential buildings in the district, he said.
“I put one hand on my son's back and told him not to be afraid,” he said. Afou's family of three sons aged 6-13, along with a few other relatives, were now stranded on the main road as traffic surged north.
They didn't know where they were going to live, he said, but they wanted to get to Beirut.
'WE WILL BE BACK'
As the traffic passed through Sidon there were long lines. A van appeared, the back doors were open and a family was sitting inside, a woman wearing a red scarf was hanging by one foot by the door and a boy was standing in the middle hanging on a rail.
On the side of the road a group from the Lebanese security forces, wearing blue jeans and black jackets with 'Police' written on them, stood with their guns.
The man leaned on the woman in the passenger seat of the car to shout out the window: “We will come back. If God wills we will come back. Tell (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu we will come back.”
But another man, who only gave his name as Ahmed, said only God knows if his family can return home. He was out on the side of the road, his van was full of more than 10 people, most of them children.
“Strikes.
The Ministry of Health in Lebanon said that more than 270 people were killed in the bombing incident and the official said that it was the single day that killed the most people since the end of the civil war in 1990.
Israel said it hit about 800 targets linked to Hezbollah and that the buildings hit contained the group's weapons.
Others had seen the destruction.
“The power and intensity of the bombing is something we have never seen before in all previous wars,” said Abu Hassan Kahoul, who was on his way to Beirut with his family after two buildings were repaired near the apartment where he lives.
“Little children don't know what is happening but there is fear in their eyes,” he added.
Even in Beirut there was a growing outcry, and parents rushed to get their children out of schools as Israel warned of further strikes. “The situation is not promising,” said a man named Issa, who is going to pick up a young student.
