Lebanese Ahmad Nazar was 6 years old when his father, Hassan, was killed in 1986 in an Israeli bombing raid in the city of Arabsalim, in southern Lebanon, less than 100 kilometers from the capital Beirut.
Hassan was at a gas station filling up his car when he was hit by a bomb. Death was instantaneous.
Ahmad, who now lives in Brazil, was reunited this Saturday (19) with part of his family (featured image) at the Guarulhos Air Base, after a flight of more than 15 hours, leaving from Beirut, which brought his wife Zeinab, and his three children: Lamis, aged 12, Sajed, aged ten, and Farah, aged one and a half – the only one of his children who was born in Lebanon, the others are Brazilian.
They came on the sixth flight of Operation Raízes do Cedro, coordinated by the federal government and carried out by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB), an operation that is rescuing Brazilians living in Lebanon.
His wife and children were in the Lebanese city of Arabsalim, the same city where Ahmad’s father was killed, when Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory intensified in recent weeks.
“It’s no longer possible to live in Lebanon. There is no longer any safe region. Before, it was only the South region that was dangerous, but not anymore”, says Ahmad, who has lived in São Paulo since 2007.
Ahmad and Zeinab had planned that their children would be educated in Lebanon and their father, who works in São Paulo, would visit them frequently. The war changed plans. The decision then was to bring his wife and children back to Brazil.
The KC-30 aircraft, from the Air Force Corsair Squadron, landed at 7:28 am on one of the runways at Guarulhos International Airport, bringing, in addition to the Nazar family, 208 passengers and a cat.
“My mother is there and we are seven brothers. They are living there. But it’s very dangerous. My family’s neighboring house was destroyed in a bombing. A single missile is capable of destroying a building. They left the city and went to safer places. Eight days later, my family’s house was destroyed,” says Ahmad, showing photos and videos on his cell phone of the rubble of the place where his family lived.
Operation Raízes do Cedro has so far repatriated a total of 1,317 passengers, including 242 children, 40 babies, 138 elderly people, 12 pregnant women, 101 people with some health complication and 12 people with disabilities, in addition to 15 domestic animals.
Leila Hadi, who also came on the same FAB flight, regretted the fact that she was unable to bring at least one of her two sisters who live in Lebanon with her. She had been living in the Bekaa Valley region for two years. “
I needed to have brought at least one sister with me. It’s very scary there.”
Leila Hadi disembarked today from the FAB KC-30 plane, at the São Paulo Air Base – Paulo Pinto/Agência Brasil
Leila says that any louder noise reminds her of Israeli bombings. “Just now, with the noise of the plane here on the runway, I got scared. Now it’s like this, we are scared day and night remembering the bombings.”
Another returnee, Mohamed Elgandur, has family in Brazil and Lebanon and alternates his residence between the two countries. He was in Lebanon and decided to return to Brazil, but he is worried about his family members who stayed behind.
“I live there and I live here. I have children here and grandchildren here. The wife cannot come due to her health. We were in [Vale do] Bekaa, on the border where the bombings were taking place, could hear planes and direct bombing. To say it wasn’t scary is a lie. The biggest concern is for the family.”
