Israeli aircraft buzz Beirut as the drums of war bang loud

TUNHE PEOPLE of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, have a reputation for partying through the bad times—including during a 15-year-long civil war and years of conflict with Israel. Now even they are rattled. Ever since Israel’s twin assassinations of Hizbullah and Hamas officials a week ago, crowds have been thronging the airport; many remember how Israel bombed the airport in a previous war in 2006 and are trying to get out before that happens again. Embassies have called on their nationals to evacuate. On Lebanon’s border with Israel, 120km south of Beirut, peacekeepers are on a knife edge. “This is the longest period of tension and instability we can remember,” says one officer.