SOUTH OF LITANI (Lebanon, 2006)
At regular intervals during the civil war in Lebanon the Israeli army occupied the south bank of the Litani River, home to a large Shiite community. After the definitive Israeli withdrawal in 2000, the region came under the shared military supervision of the Shiite Hezbollah and the Sunni premier Rafic Hariri. With Hariri’s murder in 2004, the country fell back into chaos. In July, 2006, a new conflict between Israel and Hezbollah followed, after an attack by Hezbollah on Israeli soldiers. The confrontation led to 1500 dead and more than a million refugees. Mauro Bottaro photographed life to the south of the Litani in the months after the ceasefire on September 8, 2006. He observed that their religion contributed to a large degree to the Shiites determination to continue to live in the area, whatever the circumstances.
