By Syed Saleem Shahzad

SOUTH LEBANON - "The resistance [Hezbollah] protects the country, but the country is the victim of the resistance." So read Arabic-language pamphlets dropped by air all over south Lebanon.

"The purpose behind the message is to ask people to leave southern Lebanon so that Israel and Hezbollah can be left to fight face-to-face against each other," Abbas Hussain told Asia Times Online. Members of his family were among the more than 50 killed in an Israeli air strike on the town of Qana on Sunday.

"A few days before the bombing, flyers were dropped which clearly warned the people to leave Qana at once, otherwise they would be victims," Abbas said. Tragically, though, many people either did not heed the warning or did not have the time or means to leave.

Israel declared a 48-hour cessation of aerial strikes (only partially followed) as a result of widespread international condemnation of the Qana debacle, and people have now taken the opportunity to flee to safer areas.

Roads across the south are clogged with traffic as long lines of refugees leave southern towns.

"I have been operating this hospital for many years and have provided aid to the victims of Israeli raids since the mid-1990s, but the way Israel came up with the latest attacks, people now have to leave their places at all costs," Dr Jawad Mahmood Najam told Asia Times Online. Najam is a surgeon and qualified from a university of Egypt. He runs the 80-bed Najam Hospital near Qana.

The long haul
Despite the brief respite from Israeli air strikes, the first in the three weeks since hostilities began, the consensus on the ground is that the war is still in its early stages and that both Israel and Hezbollah are prepared for a long struggle.

People Asia Times Online spoke to familiar with Hezbollah say that long before the systematic destruction of southern Lebanon began, Hezbollah men had begun leaving their villages and towns. Al-Amal (a former Shi'ite militia and now a political party) took over their administrative duties.

The men headed for the mountains of Bint Jubail, Maroon, Ras, Yaroon, Marjayoun and Taibeh, where Hezbollah has concentrated its foot soldiers to take on Israeli ground forces.

"This is the initial phase of the war," said Abu Jehad, who met with Asia Times Online at a village near Tyre. Jehad called himself an ordinary servant of the ummah (Muslim nation). But his flawless English and the powerful container truck in which he was riding hinted at something else. "Just food supplies from north Lebanon," he said.

"Hezbollah has proved that it is competent. We have already fired rockets deep into Israel and inflicted casualties on them, which no Arab nation has done in the many Arab-Israeli wars," Jehad said.

"But those were just symbolic attacks on Israel as they were drawing lines for war and we were drawing our lines. Once the real war breaks out, then Israel will come out with its full power. Then we will show them what long-range missiles are all about and how they can hit precise targets deep inside Israel," Jehad said.

"This is just the beginning. In fact, we have been waiting for Israeli aggression, knowing that Israel will never tolerate a major regional power, which Hezbollah is.

"Soldiers have been kidnapping and released before; why did Israel overreact this time [to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers that set off the latest fighting]? Seven of our villages are still under occupation of Israel, and according to the UN we have the right to resist.

"They overreacted because they were already prepared for a war and just searching for a chance. Hezbollah is not naive, it knew the Israeli plan, so we had a counter-strategy ready to implement," Jehad maintained.

Jehad's view that the war will intensify is supported by numerous people who spoke to Asia Times Online. Indeed, the Israeli cabinet on Tuesday unanimously approved "widening" ground operations. In response, "Hezbollah will escalate attacks against Israel", said Ali Fayyad, a senior member of the group's central council. Many also expressed concern that Syria and Iran would be drawn into the conflict.

In the first phase of its attacks in the south, Israel has inflicted telling damage. Apart from shattered infrastructure, international trade has dried up and oil reserves are almost exhausted, causing the price of gasoline to double. Long queues at gas stations indicate signs of trouble to come, and during the night there are strict instructions to keep all road lights off.

The lights are slowly going out over the Middle East.

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Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times Online. He can be reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.