After the roar of Israeli warplanes terrified her baby grandson, Umm Hassan's family sought solace on a south Lebanon beach, hoping to escape the escalating cross-border violence. Life goes on but "the children are frightened," the 60-year-old told AFP from the beach in Tyre, about 20 kilometers from the Israel-Lebanon frontier. Women in two-piece swimsuits tanned in the sun, while others fully clothed and wearing head coverings enjoyed the waves, even as the bombardment sometimes echoed in the distance.
Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, and Israel have been trading near-daily fire since the Gaza war was trigged by the Palestinian militant group's October 7 attack on southern Israel. Against the backdrop of the ongoing cross-border fire, Umm Hassan's one-year-old grandson played in the sand with his mother Fatima, in a moment of tranquility. Only a few days earlier, an Israeli fighter jet broke the sound barrier over their inland village of Srifa, which has come under Israeli bombardment in recent months, said Umm Hassan.
The thunderous sonic boom upset the baby so much that he began sobbing, then laughing, then sobbing again, for an hour and a half, clearly in distress. "I called the doctor, who said it was a fit of hysteria," the grandmother said. "We take him to the riverside, and to the sea, so he can forget," she said, wearing a loose, flowery shirt.
Umm Hassan was among hundreds of beachgoers -- many from the country's south, where Hezbollah largely holds sway -- who were trying.
