War has created a vacuum here – sucking the life out of this ancient city proud of its Roman ruins, and golden sandy beach.Streets are empty, and shops shuttered.
The seashore is deserted. Windows rattle with Israeli air strikes.
The local civil defence headquarters lies abandoned – rescue teams were forced to evacuate – to save themselves after they got a telephone warning from Israel.
Israeli strikes are getting louder and closer to our hotel – in recent days several strikes on the hills opposite us appear to involve some of Israel’s most destructive bombs, weighing in at 1000lb.
And then there is the Hezbollah factor. Even as the armed group is trying to hold off invading Israeli troops on Lebanese soil, it is controlling the international media in the city of Tyre.
It limits our movements, though it has no control over what we write or broadcast.In hospitals, doctors look weary and overwhelmed.
Many no longer go home because it is too dangerous to travel.Instead, they tend to patients like nine-year-old Mariam, whose left leg is in a cast, and whose arm is heavily bandaged.
She lies sleeping in a bed in Hiram Hospital, dark hair framing her face.