Conflict

Double Blind

Paolo Pellegrin's 'Double Blind' is testimony to the destruction and lasting consequences of conflict between Hezbollah and the Israeli Army in Lebanon

Paolo Pellegrin

Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Moments after an Israeli air strike destroyed several buildings in Dahia. Beirut, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Moments after an Israeli air strike destroyed several buildings in Dahia. Beirut, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Shocked civilians after Israeli aircraft hit a building. Tyre, Lebanon. July 26, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind A car hit by a rocket. Near Qana, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Civilians flee their destroyed villages in southern Lebanon. Lebanon. July, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind The smoke coming from a building hit by an Israeli bomb. Beirut, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Empty streets moments after an Israeli air strike destroyed several buildings in Dahiya. Beirut, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind 56 civilians were killed during an Israeli air strike in the early hours of the morning. Qana, Lebanon. July 30, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Civilians in shock after Israeli airstrike. Tyre, Lebanon. July, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind A survivor of the Caana bombing that killed 56 people prays in the public hospital. Tyre, Lebanon. July 30, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind A car is hit by a rocket and explodes. Bint Jbeil, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Huge blasts, tracers and flares seen in the night sky as Tyre came under heavy attack by the Israeli air and naval forces. Tyre, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Man's silhouette amongst rubble moments after Israeli aircraft hit a building. Tyre, Lebanon. July 26, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind An elderly woman is brought into hospital during intense bombing and shelling. Tebnine, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos
Paolo Pellegrin | Double Blind Destruction of the Hezbollah stronghold in Dahiya. Beirut, Lebanon. August, 2006. © Paolo Pellegrin | Magnum Photos

While all wars contain an element of the absurd, in looking at the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 – in what sparked it and what was achieved – it is hard to find a modern comparison for sheer senselessness. On the morning of July 12, 2006, Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon conducted a raid on an Israeli army border outpost, killing three soldiers and taking two others back across the frontier as prisoners. An Israeli army unit that went in pursuit of the attackers instead stumbled into a Hezbollah ambush, resulting in the deaths of five more Israeli soldiers. From that small beginning, a war began that will continue to have ramifications in the Middle East for decades to come.

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