Escalating tensions in Lebanon are hitting home in Windsor, Ont.
Rawad Kansoun and Makram Kamel are both originally from Beirut
Recent attacks and bombings in Lebanon have hit close to home for some families split between the Middle Eastern country and the southwestern Ontario border city of Windsor.
The tension between Israel and Hezbollah has spiked fears that the two sides' escalating conflict could end up in an all-out war.
Rawad Kansoun moved to Windsor two years ago from Beirut because a friend lives in the city and his brother now resides in Michigan. Kansoun isn't a Canadian citizen yet.
The filmmaker calls what's been going on in his home country"terrifying."
"There is no safe point in Lebanon these days," he said. "These people are dying in the streets. They are bombing hospitals, ambulances, bridges, roads, cars."
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His parents are still there and just recently fled his childhood residence in fear of being bombed.
"I was asking my mother and my father to leave the house and they didn't want to leave the house. So I begged them because they bombed the neighbourhood. So they decided to leave."
After losing contact with them on WhatsApp for roughly 12 hours, Kansoun says he's since found out they're OK and staying with his cousin. And that shortly after they fled their house was in fact destroyed.
However, that's not something he plans to tell his parents about anytime soon who he hopes to get to North America at some point.
"My dad spent 45 years of his life building this house. If I tell him, he will die. My father has heart disease. My mother is diabetic and she has a problem with her eyes. She can barely see. If we tell them, 100 per cent they will suffer."
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Kansoun says he's spent most of his life in Beirut "on the ground" worrying about the turmoil.
"I think it will not end soon. The situation is escalating. People are all evaporating. Families. Whole families dead in the streets. This is crazy. This has to stop."
He says religion has separated his country for too long and he doesn't bother to identify as Christian or Muslim.
"Now it's time just to be Lebanese. Only Lebanese."
Makram Kamel came to Windsor eight years ago from Lebanon.
He was a journalist before coming over and now helps immigrants get settled in Windsor.
The majority of the 52-year-old's family remains in Beirut.
"I'm so afraid because my brother has two kids and his wife [they're] just running from place to place because there's no safe place to stay," said Kamel.
"They bombed the area that he used to live. He [went] on to another area and they bombed it again. And now he moved to another city."
He says some of his extended family were hurt in a recent attack.
"I spent most of my childhood and my adult life at war. I ran here for safety to givemy son hope that maybe he would have a better future."
According to Kamel, he wants to see real solutions instead of settling for something like a ceasefire that they've seen many times before.
"After decades of apartheid, they [need to] find a solution that this country belongs to everybody. Doesn't matter your religion, your colour, your ethnicity. We must have a real solution.
The executive director of Windsor's Jewish federation and community centre says locally Jewish people are concerned with their safety here and abroad because of the violence.
"Just the amount of violence that's been turned toward this community, the Jewish community, is upsetting," Marion Zeller told CBC News.
"I think we're living in fear, we're living in angst, and we're questioning why. Suddenly something overnight has changed and we can't be friends anymore? We're just wondering why there is so much hatred toward us just because we have an affinity for a land, for a country we're being persecuted for it."
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