TO UNDERSTAND how the Lebanese felt, you only had to watch the car which drove down Baalbek Street yesterday with four large yellow and green Hizbullah flags, complete with the word "Allah" and a hand holding a Kalashnikov rifle.
On the bonnet and boot, there were two glass boxes half filled with paper currency. "Give for the Islamic Resistance," was hand written on the side. And out of shops and houses, men and Women, many of them middle class and definitely not religious fanatics, came to put money in the boxes.
Never before have such scenes been witnessed on the streets of Beirut. Previously despised by many Lebanese - especially those who are not of the Shia Muslim faith - the Hizbullah has, thanks to Israel, suddenly come of age.
The Israeli massacre of civilians continued yesterday when an Israeli gunboat deliberately fired again at traffic on the coastal highway north of Sidon, killing a motorist. It has united Muslims and Christians in almost unprecedented fury against the Israelis.
In both Muslim and Christian areas of Beirut, the Lebanese have tied black ribbons to their car radio aerials in memory of the more than 100 civilians slaughtered by the Israelis in the UN compound at Qana. A national day of mourning yesterday closed down shops, banks and government buildings across the country while at midday, many Lebanese observed a minute's silence in memory of the total of over 200 civilians killed by the Israelis.
Meanwhile, records show that despite Israel's claim it did not know that refugees were sheltering under the UN's protection, a senior member of the UN's civil staff in southern Lebanon told an Israeli general at 1.15 p.m. on Tuesday - 49 hours before the massacre - that 5,000 refugees were being protected and that the civilians were sheltering in every UN position, including Qana.
It has also emerged that in the two minutes after the Katyushas were fired from a cemetery to the north of the Fijian compound, another 260 civilians, inhabitants of Qana who had hitherto stayed in their homes, ran in panic through the gates of the past, along with the three Hizbullah men - bringing the total number of refugees to around 880. Fearing retaliation on the area - but hardly on their compound - Fijian soldiers began to pack as many refugees as they could into their bunkers, physically pushing women and children into the concrete interiors until no more could be accommodated.
"We wanted women in first, but mothers here have three or four children and they wouldn't go into the bunkers with three children and leave the fourth lost outside," a Fijian officer said yesterday. "They were hunting for children who had run off and were playing with friends. They were crying because they couldn't find them. Then the first Israeli shells came in."
Another soldier described what happened next. "There were shrieks of agony and pain as the shell fragments cut off the legs and arms and heads of the refugees. They sounded like animals who had gone mad. We desperately tried to get UN operations to tell the Israelis to stop. But the Israelis didn't respond; they just sent us a `shell warning' - after the people were already being massacred. The UN pleaded with them to stop but they went on shelling for 12 minutes."
No Lebanese believes that the Qana massacre was an accident. "I used to hate the Hizbullah," a student of hotel management told me yesterday, his voice steadily rising in anger. "But now I admire them. They are the only guys with the guts to stand up to the Israelis and keep shooting. Not even the Palestinians did that. They say that Peres had to do this in order to win the election. And the Americans say there will only be a Middle Fast peace if Peres wins the election.
"So you mean all this is for peace? You mean that Peres has to slaughter all these people to win the election and save peace? We Lebanese have to die for your peace? You people make me sick."