Nothing in my life could have prepared me for today.

I woke up this morning as usual to give my daily update. It doesn’t vary much…the number of Israeli attacks, the diplomatic efforts to solve the conflict in Middle East. But this morning the news was more grim than I am used to relaying. It wasn’t just another attack…this was a massacre!

Civilians have been attacked before and have been brushed aside by Israel as ‘tragic mistake’. But this morning I couldn’t believe my eyes. Over a hundred people who had huddled together in a three storey building in Qana were attacked. They had come under that roof to save their lives…that’s where they lost them.

The pictures are horrific, bodies buried under rubble, buildings destroyed. I have seen this before last year in Kashmir. But this wasn’t earth’s wrath on human beings. This was, if possible more cruel, more intense and certainly very irrational. Of the 54 killed according to official sources, 37 were children. Lives that had never begun ended and for no reason.

I shook my head to push away the images so I could get on with my work. I had an interview lined up with Ali El Mokdad, the Hizbollah representative in Lebanese Parliament. I have been here for three days and I finally caught hold of the guy for a meeting. I gave my telephonic reprt, relayed the news after speaking to a Red Cross Rep and moved on to MTC building in downtown for the interview. As I drove through the city square, I saw a few girls with banners in their hands. I was touched. I thought, if only more people had spirit enough to publicly tell the world what they thought about Israel.

The interview took twenty minutes. As I thanked Mr. Mokdad for his time he shook his head saying how he just can’t believe that this has happened to Qana again. Only ten years ago in a similar attack on Qana, hundred people had died. I asked him if I could possibly tag along with hizbollah team any time at all possible. Traveling to Southern parts of Lebanon has become atrocious. No one takes you there. It’s just not advisable anymore. He assured me he would look into the matter.

My colleague Yasir Qureshi and I walked out of the building talking about somehow getting to Qana. The Journalists who are there already have traveled through Jordan and we don’t have Jordanian visas.

As we walked out of the Building we noticed that the number of people had grown in the twenty minutes significantly. The little girls, who took an initiative to state their anger against the Qana Massacre, had become a force. There were easily hundred people there, carrying banners and posters, some were carrying Hizbollah flags. And the number of people was multiplying by the minute.

Shouts of ‘down with israel’ started to rise from every direction. And every where I looked I saw people coming from every possible direction. Collectively they started to move towards the back of the building. I am not familiar with the area so I followed them while communicating with my colleagues in Pakistan about the demonstration. As the crowd reached the back of the building, I saw the UN offices. Lebanon had come out to vent its anger collectively and they knew exactly what they wanted to do.

In just over twenty minutes, every window of the building had been shattered. People burnt the flags, stomped on UN sign boards, pounded the doors, and destroyed the furniture. The Civil Defense Officers and Lebanese police stood aside while the crowd did everything they could possibly think of…even as far as spitting on UN crest, a seemingly meaningless act that is but a small reflection of how the people felt in that moment.

The crowd started chanting…’Allah, Nasrullah and Dahir and then changed to ‘Allah, Nasrullah and all of Lebanon’. With my own eyes, I saw a nation come alive. Regardless of their religion or political affiliations, people of Lebanon, Shi’aites , Sunnis and Christians had come together.

I moved with the crowd, in those moments becoming one of them and possibly witnessing a turning point in this war. It won’t solve anything, not anytime soon but it is still the strongest reminder yet to the world that rockets and missiles can never crush a nation’s spirit.