Dry fishing nets lie in heaps along the quay in Sidon. The harbor is full of boats. A bit further away, the city's usually lively fish market is unusually quiet.
The Lebanese army told us that we are not allowed to go out and we respect that, says fisherman Mohammed Bidawi.
If it continues like this, the market will have to close.
The fishing ban affects thousands, according to Bidawi – in a Lebanon already plagued by an economic crisis of historic proportions.
The Lebanese warning came after Israel on Monday announced extended attacks on Hezbollah targets along Lebanon's southern coast, where the city of Sidon is located. The population was urged to stay away from the coast south of the al-Awali River, which flows into the Mediterranean Sea north of Sidon.
Thus, around a third of Lebanon's coast has been transformed into an active war zone. Along the waterfront promenade in Sidon, many shops and cafes are closed after Israel's warning.
Fisherman Hamza Sonbol says that he and his colleagues have practically been "stripped bare overnight". Many are day laborers – the days they catch fish, they eat, otherwise not.
Colleague Issam Haboush worries about his family, one of hundreds in the area who he says are dependent on fishing.
We provide for our children through fishing. If we don't go out to sea, we won't have any food to eat, he says.
Lebanon's economy is in free fall, with threats of state bankruptcy and screaming need for international crisis loans. The state has been calculated to be one of the most heavily indebted countries in the world, relatively speaking.
Tens of thousands of jobs have been lost and the crisis has led to widespread shortages of water, electricity, medicine, and functioning communication services.
The catastrophe on August 4, 2020, when a massive harbor explosion devastated parts of the capital Beirut, made the situation even worse. Attempts to investigate what lay behind have become yet another battleground in the country's ruling elite.
The escalated conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, an Iran-backed movement described as a "state within a state" in Lebanon, is further hitting the crisis-stricken country's economy.
