MIDDLE East Airlines flight 262 from Larnaca in Cyprus was well filled with passengers making the half hour hop to Beirut. We took off on time, landing 15 minutes early, at 3.40 p.m.
The only foreign aircraft on the tarmac was an Austrian Airlines plane, but several aircraft of the Lebanese carrier were being serviced normally. We were whisked off the plane in record time and cleared quickly through immigration, collected our luggage and swept out of the airport into a ramshackle taxi.
Putting his foot firmly down on the accelerator, the driver raised his eyes to the sky. "We had a raid at three o'clock and they bombed nearby," he said. Israel claimed the target was a regional Hizbullah headquarters. "The planes were flying round and round the airport before they, made their strike," he remarked, as we passed the large Hizbullah built hospital on the airport road which runs through the heart of the Dahi, the southern Shia suburbs, which are the Hizbullah stronghold in the capital.
Although traffic was light, the driver took an unorthodox route, through the ruins of the city centre and the bulldozed expanse which was Martyrs Suare, to Hamra - the Champs Elysee of west Beirut - which we reached in record time, 10 minutes flat.
Hamra was choked with cars, cafes and shops were open, pedestrians were enjoying a walk in the warm, hazy afternoon. "You see, we're not afraid of them. They come, and we go on with our business," the driver said, forgetting his nervous survey of the sky as we drove through the Dahi. Of course, when we reached our destination there was a hassle over the tariff, with the driver demanding a 50 per cent surcharge "because of the situation". Not so normal after all.
Mr Sultan Bedawi, the proprietor of the Esquire Bookshop across from the Mayflower Hotel, was sitting in the dark in his shop. Three days ago he and all Lebanon had electricity day and night. Today, only a few sectors of the capital and some localities elsewhere enjoy four hours of current a day. So far the Israeli air force has taken out at least three power stations, one at Jamhou, near the presidential palace, on Sunday and two on Monday, one in the Maronite Christian mountain area and the other in the north. The damage is estimated at $80 million (£51 million) and repairs could take months. The Electricite du Liban has not be able to assess the destruction in the south because of continuing Israeli attacks.
Before this onslaught, the restoration of current to the country was the most spectacular success of the government's reconstruction programme, achieved in part with the help of the Electricity Supply Board (ESB International) at a cost of $1 billion loaned by Arab and European institutions.
Schools have been closed until at least April 22nd because many are filled with refugees. No one really knows how many - 200 or 300 or 400,000. Hizbullah, rather than the hard pressed Lebanese Government, is now providing food and clothing for many of these refugees. The movement which operates hospitals and welfare programmes, has had a great deal of practice in dealing with such emergencies. Israel, not Hizbullah, is blamed for Lebanon's new tragedy, which the Lebanese see as an attack on the people of Lebanon rather than the resistance. Hizbullah, which faces the Lebanese electorate in parliamentary elections in the autumn is cultivating not antagonising potential voters.
So far, there are reports of only one Hizbullah fighter being killed (as against two Israeli soldiers) while at least 37 civilians have been killed and over 150 wounded.
