Zeead Yaghi Zeead Yaghi is a writer, an editor, and a lecturer at the history department of the American University of Beirut, and is currently a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

Theater of Warning | Living Through Israel’s Attacks on Lebanon

Zeead Yaghi

The airstrikes came like clockwork. Every day between September 19 and November 26, the Israeli Defense Force’s Arabic spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, posted a series of “warnings” on X, mapping that night’s planned attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs. Targeted buildings were colored in red, and the accompanying messages instructed residents to evacuate. Adraee’s announcements were highly descriptive. Often, he used colloquial or informal names of streets and buildings, and included details...