Israel's nightly attacks in Beirut are leaving the Lebanese sleepless

ZOUK MOSBEH, Lebanon – As night falls, it is no longer sleep but the buzzing threat of an Israeli attack bearing down on the Lebanese capital.

Israel's overnight attacks, which reached the heart of Beirut in the early hours of Thursday, mean few in the city and beyond are finding peace. Residents told NBC News they had barely slept in recent days, fearful of where Israel would strike next and what the future held for their long-beleaguered country, now at the center of a worsening regional conflict.

Hala Kobaissi, a makeup artist living in Salim Salam in Beirut neighborhood — Just a stone's throw from Bachoura, where at least nine people were killed overnight in an Israeli attack on the heart of the city, she said she spent the hours from dusk to dawn “in complete shock” as the sounds of “shattering Glass, the screams and cries of the people could be heard” sounded.

“I don’t know what to say or where to start,” the 55-year-old Kobaissi said at a frantic pace in a telephone interview early Thursday. “Nowhere is safe now.”

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“Every night we say this is the hardest night,” said Hiam Khoury, 50, after another restless night in the Beirut suburb of Hadath, where she lives with her 19-year-old son.

The hours from dusk to dawn were “a nightmare,” she said, after Israel launched its heaviest airstrike yet on the capital.

There were also Israeli attacks overnight in the suburb of Dahieh, a Hezbollah stronghold less than 10 minutes' drive from Hadath. The tremors from the explosion were felt in Khoury's home.

“Everything shook, the house,” she said. “We didn’t sleep. How can you do this even if the bombing stops?”

Across the country, where more than 1,300 people have been killed and some 1.2 million displaced since Israel stepped up its military offensive, families reported sleepless nights of terror. More and more people have no choice but to try to sleep on Beirut's busy streets, parking lots and playgrounds as emergency shelters fill up.

“For the last three days, people have been nervous,” said Rayan Youness, 42, a school teacher who lives in the capital’s Hamra district.

“You stay up until the early hours of the morning,” he said, “wondering where the explosion is going to come from: Is it going to hit me?” Will it hit someone I know? Will it affect a family?”

“From the moment we wake up to the moment we try to go to sleep, reaper drones are over our heads,” Youness said. “Everywhere in the city, in every neighborhood. Is this normal?”

Dr. Tania Baban, a doctor who works on the ground in Beirut for the Illinois-based humanitarian nonprofit MedGlobal, said she was horrified this morning to hear that people seeking safety had fled to the Lebanese capital who had to flee to Israel again started his night strike in Bachoura.

“Can you imagine being woken up by an explosion and then being told to evacuate within minutes?” she said Thursday morning. “The horror of waking up your children, running away and leaving everything behind?”

Baban said she, too, has barely slept in recent days and is working until the early hours of the morning to provide displaced civilians with basic needs such as food and bedding, as well as medical care.

“As soon as the sun goes down, we know something is going to happen,” she said.

Matthew Savill, director of military science at the Royal United Services Institute, said night strikes typically “privilege the side that is trained and prepared for them, with sensors, visual aids and other technologies.”

During Israel's war with Hezbollah in 2006, the Israel Defense Forces were surprised to find Hezbollah “special forces” “equipped like their own specialists, including with night vision goggles.”

This time, with Hezbollah's communications “compromised, the Israelis undoubtedly believe they can gain an additional advantage, although the complexity of the night fighting should not be underestimated,” Savill said.

Mahdi Ghuloom, a regional security analyst at Le Beck International, said Israel's decision to launch attacks overnight could also be due in part “to the timing of accurate information about targets.”

“The intelligence advantage could come from reduced mobility to key targets for the (Israeli military) during the night, thereby providing actionable information about where to attack,” he said in an email Thursday. “It could also be an indication of night-time weaknesses in Hezbollah’s ranks.”

The United States loudly called for a ceasefire to end fighting between its ally and the Iran-backed militant group. However, as the conflict continued to intensify, Khoury said that staying awake all night in Lebanon was becoming “traumatized” and was becoming an “everyday routine.”

“I don’t know how long this will last. We have nowhere to go and we don’t want to leave our house and stay on the streets,” she said.

“We’re exhausted.”