Beirut was my home for almost 4 years when I was studying urban planning at the American University of Beirut, and I have a lot of loved ones in the city.

Following today's Israeli terror strikes, I spent the morning checking on people... Of course, everyone is shaken, but they feel compelled to reassure us that they're ok.

Everyone I checked with was grateful for my messages, to know that they are not forgotten.

A friend sent me a video of a building that was struck by an Israeli missile. It was less than 100m away from my apartment on the waterfront, and maybe 200m from the AUB campus. Two friends lived in the building adjacent to that building that now is mostly rubble. I couldn't get to them, but I heard through other friends that they're ok.

The rubble from the terror strike is piled on the street, burying cars under it, blocking the street that I walked every day to get to campus.

Israel is a terrorist state.

#Beirut #Lebanon #Palestine #Iran

There is a slightly funny and surreal #Beirut moment from that Israeli terror strike video.

Adjacent to the struck building, there's a gorgeous heritage building with an unobstructed view to the Mediterranean, looking over the Ayn elMrayseh old mosque. Perfect location.

Since the early 2010s, there has been an ongoing epic battle between the urbanists and heritage activists vs the owner of the building. He wants to demolish to build a massive high rise in its place. He managed to evict the old tenants, drill a massive hole in the floor of two of the floors to render it uninhabitable. But the activists got a court injunction to stop the demolition, and the developer was forced to build external scaffolding to prevent additional structural damage.

Well, after today's strike, the videos show that the building is still standing perfectly. I'm sure that the owner would have loved for the strike to demolish it too, but alas, that's not how fate works.

#urbanism

@majdal he needs to send the US intelligence services a few lies