STORY: :: Batroun, Lebanon
Patrick Baz learned photography in the early days of Lebanon's civil war.
He spent his adulthood documenting it - photographing fighters from all sides.
:: Patrick Baz, Lebanese photographer
"Some were specialized in wedding photography, I was specialized in funeral photography."
But Patrick says Lebanon's wounds from the 1975-1990 war never healed...
:: Thierry Van Biesen
And he worries there's a risk of renewed fighting - as tensions in the region escalate.
"It's difficult to say, but we're having nostalgia of the previous wars. We could hide. We could go somewhere safe. Today, it's not the case anymore. You can't say that this area or this region is 100% safe."
:: 1975
The brutal civil war erupted in 1975 when sectarian and economic tensions bubbled over.
Clashes broke out between Christian gunmen and Palestinian fighters. Then other countries and communities were drawn in.
"These are the pictures of the Lebanese wars, some call it civil war."
:: Patrick Baz
Around 150,000 Lebanese were killed and 17,000 went missing.
Around one million people were displaced.
1.2 million have been displaced by the recent war.
:: Beirut, Lebanon, April 8, 2026
It erupted when Hezbollah fired into Israel on March 2nd, in support of Iran.
:: Beirut, Lebanon, July 1987
The Lebanese armed group was founded in 1982 at the height of the civil war. It was the only group to keep its arms when the war ended.
Some Lebanese now blame Hezbollah, or the Shi'ite community as a whole, for dragging the country back into conflict.
Shi'ite Muslims, who have borne the brunt of the last two wars with Israel, say the state has failed to protect them.
:: Beirut, Lebanon, April 8, 2026
On April 8th, one hundred Israeli strikes hit Lebanon, including the capital, within ten minutes.
For many Lebanese, the images were not just of a new war. They were a memory of the past.
:: Beirut, Lebanon, August 4, 2020
:: Beirut, Lebanon, April 8, 2026
:: Ziad Saab, Head of 'Fighters For Peace'
"Two scenes that passed were really big - the scene of the August 4, 2020 explosion at the Beirut port, and the scene on April 8, 2026 that just passed. These basically brought back the scenes of the whole civil war in seconds."
:: Beirut, Lebanon
Ziad Saab fought in Lebanon's civil war alongside the Communist Party.
He's the head of Fighters for Peace, an NGO founded by former fighters.
In his archive, he found a handwritten letter from 1981 - detailing Israeli bombardment on villages in Lebanon's south.
Villages that have recently been struck again.
"He, he and he got killed in the Lebanese civil war."
Each new crisis has posed the same question: whether Lebanon's divisions, never fully resolved after the civil war - could once again turn violent.
:: Ziad Saab, Head of 'Fighters For Peace'
"Unfortunately, the war ended and this war didn't move on to another place. But the truth is that the war didn't move on. The feeling that it's still ongoing, that feeling is present, and it's because there was no real solution, there was no real reconciliation."
:: Beirut, Lebanon, April 2026
A recent temporary ceasefire brought some respite after weeks of Israeli strikes that killed nearly 2,300 people.
But diplomats say the deal leaves key issues unaddressed -
It doesn't require Israeli troops to withdraw from Lebanon.
And it doesn't explicitly require Hezbollah to disarm.
:: Beirut, Lebanon
Rafic Bazerji was a senior figure in a Lebanese Christian armed group during the civil war.
He says deals that leave Lebanon with unfinished business - like the current ceasefire - are doomed to reignite internal tensions.
:: Rafic Bazerji, President of the Latin League
"Look, it's true that the Lebanese people is very aware, very aware, and very worried about the war because they know how it ends, what are its consequences and its dimensions... In the end, if we can avoid it, we avoid it. But if the razor reaches our throats, we're also not going to take it lying down."
He talks about the Taef Agreement, which ended the civil war but was never fully implemented...
And the government's 2025 plan to disarm Hezbollah, which was cut short by the new war.
Rafic says he sees a young generation in Lebanon that could take up arms.
:: Rafic Bazerji, President of the Latin League
"As much as we were, in our days, fanatics and we were excited to fight, I'm seeing today a new generation that is scary. We're kids compared to them. I look at them, they're taller than us, wider than us, and stronger than us. They understand more than us, they understand information more than us, and they're also ready not to compromise on this country."
:: Batroun, Lebanon
Patrick agrees.
He says divisions among Lebanese youth could make a new internal conflict possible.
:: Patrick Baz, Lebanese photographer
"Of course it can happen again. I'm sure if you go to universities today and you tell them to carry guns and go and fire at your political opponents or someone you don't like, they will do it."
:: Beirut, Lebanon, April 2026
Now, fifty-one years after Lebanon's civil war began, survivors like Rafic, Ziad and Patrick say the country has never dealt with what caused it.
:: Baabda, Lebanon
And without that reckoning, they say, history could happen again.
:: Ziad Saab, Head of 'Fighters For Peace'
"Don't repeat our experience. Because you'll be surprised where the war will take you. It will take you in the exact opposite direction of where you think you are going. If you were thinking that the country will get better, we ruined the country. We ripped the country apart."
