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South Lebanon- On the way to South LebanonThe taxi driver would stay away from all the closed cars and say, “God help us, stay away from evil and sing to him.” The driver repeated the phrase more than once, insisting on leaving some space on the road with this type of car. The taxi driver, Abu Mustafa, says that driving near a “rapid” (a type of closed car) is dangerous and crazy.
Not only in South Lebanon, but also in Mount Lebanon Governorate, fear dominates taxi and bus drivers who spend their day on the roads. I wonder why?
“Rapid and Assassinations”
Abu Mustafa narrates that he was heading to one of the border villages in southern Lebanon. When he arrived in the town of Maryamin, he heard the roar of a drone. A few minutes later, it fired a missile that targeted a Rapid car. He was close to the place where one of the people was assassinated. Since that day, he has been careful to stay away from closed cars.
This assassination, according to the Israeli army, was of a member of Hezbollah’s engineering unit named Hassan Mahna, who was mourned by the party on July 18.
andIt appears, according to A review of Israeli assassination operations revealed that dozens of attacks on this type of vehicle resulted in the killing of a number of leaders and members of Hezbollah and other resistance movements.
We asked a bus driver whose route starts from the town of Kaifun in Mount Lebanon Governorate and reaches… BeirutIf he has the same fears about targeting closed cars as his colleague Abu Mustafa in the south, he answers, “Certainly less than the southern road, but we are dealing with a treacherous enemy that does not respect any rules of engagement and may carry out an assassination at any time and place, and what happened in the southern suburb of Beirut is the biggest evidence.”
More caution
In one of the displaced people’s shelters in southern Lebanon, we met Abu Muhammad, who had… He bought a Rapid three years ago and uses it to transport food and supplies. He says he doesn’t feel any fear, “God is the protector.”
He added that his car preserves his dignity and the dignity of his family, and with it he earns his daily bread. “It has become part of my family and I will not abandon it.” After the series of assassinations of leaders and members of the resistance, Abu Muhammad did not change anything. But, he continues, “it is natural that I should be more afraid and cautious than before.”
“The demand for this type of car has not been affected because it is practical, used in hundreds of professions, does not consume a lot of fuel, and can transport a large amount of items,” says Moein, a car dealer.
He revealed that “companies and individuals are trying to distinguish their cars by writing the name of the company or store on them in an attempt to avoid dangers and Israeli targeting.”
Another assassination in the city of Tyre, southern Lebanon, according to Lebanese media
Lebanese media: The first missile launched by the drone in Siddiqin did not hit the Rapid and its driver was able to jump out of it and run towards a nearby field, but the drone returned and launched three missiles towards the field, seriously wounding him. pic.twitter.com/fFhTdwMZNL
— Mr. Abdul Zahra Al-Dhabhawy (@Althebhawy) July 18, 2024
claustrophobia
Psychiatrist Ahmed Ayash says about what has become known as the phobia of closed cars, “Caution is a natural reaction and avoiding a bad surprise is a mandatory defensive state. Rather, not being alert and rushing into the circle of danger is an unusual adventure and recklessness that a normal, balanced person would not undertake.”
He continued, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, that anything that might pose a danger to a person or that he has heard about, even if he has not experienced it, turns into a phobia that he seeks to avoid.
But this “phobia” did not turn into a social phenomenon, because the latter – according to sociology – is “a type of behavior towards a specific issue or matter, whether fixed or variable, that affects the entire society, and may be restrictive to some individuals and imposed on them without their consent.”
While we were on our way back to Beirut, busy talking about assassinations and targeting, we heard a not very loud explosion. Given his experience with sounds, the taxi driver told us that it was a new assassination operation by drone.
Indeed, the assassination site was close to us, so we got out of the car and found the targeted car on fire. Chaos reigned in the targeted area, and it was clear that the body of one person had been recovered, while the other was still alive but seriously injured. Israeli media reported that the raid targeted leaders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).
