Former Hérault MP Elie Aboud, back from Lebanon: “I saw seriously injured people, the situation is terrible”

Des civils, victimes collatérales des frappes israéliennes, assure Elie Aboud. MAXPPP – WAEL HAMZEH

Elie Aboud, a member of parliament for Hérault from 2007 to 2017, regularly returns to his home country. He was still there when Israel struck the south of the country, to track down Hezbollah militiamen. Between emotion and political perspective, he gives his testimony as soon as he returned from Beirut.

“The situation is terrible. I saw wounded people, very seriously wounded people in hospitals. Many civilians”.  On the phone, from Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport where his plane has just landed from Beirut, Elie Aboud's voice is flat and tired. He, usually so cheerful, says: “I'm afraid for Lebanon, afraid for the Lebanese people”.

Former MP for Hérault and doctor, Elie Aboud. DR

The former LR MP for Hérault (2007-2017) was born in Lebanon, where he returns regularly, “every month”,as part of his professional activity. Elie Aboud develops home hospitalization and was at the Saint-Joseph University Hospital in Beirut when Israeli bombings left 492 dead and 1,645 injured in the south of the country and right up to the gates of the capital. “The civilian population, innocent people, are paying for this conflict with their lives”, the doctor assures us.

“Two winners… two losers”

Politics quickly takes over to analyze the conflict.“There will be two winners: Israel, first, which will claim to have destroyed the military power of Hezbollah, which is indeed a state within a state. But Hezbollah will also emerge victorious by demonstrating that they resisted. On the other side, there will be two losers, and it breaks my heart, Lebanon and the Lebanese people”.

Elie Aboud goes further, considering that, since the influx of Palestinian refugees, then those from Syria, his country “has suffered the war of others”. “There, once again, the destruction will be massive. Lebanon will pay dearly, economically and politically”.

A powerful diaspora

The former MP hopes that reason will prevail at the negotiating table. “Israel has the right to have a free, sovereign country. The Palestinian people must also have a country”. A pious wish. In the meantime, it is from Montpellier where he returned this Tuesday evening that he will follow, from afar, the conflict and its consequences. Like the many Lebanese living abroad. “The powerful diaspora will contribute to raising the country”, he says. Optimistic despite everything.

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