Lebanon: Israeli warship - "We saw it burn and sink"

Electronic Intifada
Eyewitness emails: Hizbullah hits Israeli warship
Leena Odeh writing from Beirut, Live from Lebanon, 14 July 2006

When I last sent you an email, Hizbullah just hit an Israeli ship, right next to us; we can see it from the dorm. We saw it burn and sink from here on TV and we can see the other boats surround us more. Everybody was panicking and running and I just shut my computer and gathered my things as we could see the ship sinking. My dorm is right next to the sea.

Although the American University of Beirut (AUB) is pretty safe, right now the fighting is in Beirut, not the south anymore. My close friends and family are in the south, in Beit Jbeil, and they aren't even being touched now, although yesterday they were hit hard. They're American and are seperated from their parents right now. So now israel is going to hit residential areas in Beirut.

Bombings were hitting as my friend, whose family is from the south, and I were up on the seventh floor of the dorm, getting our belongings. Then we rushed down to the 1st floor and we heard another bomb and everyone jumped to the ground. As we were running down the stairs the building was shaking.

Here in the AUB new women's dorm it's a mix of Lebanese, Americans, Brits, etc. We don't know what to do, but we think that AUB is the safest place to be right now. But it was terrifiying watching the Israeli ship sink. Now we can see the other ships closing nearer to Beirut and flashing their lights over here. People were clapping here when they hit it, but I wasn't, because I know this means war. Hizbullah has declared war. And earlier, as the UN was meeting, Israel was bombing southern Beirut. I know this means that Israel will hit Beirut and the north now even harder. Read more