Photo by: AFP

For 30 years, Sunni Muslim housewife Rajaa purchased her fruit and vegetables from Shiite grocer Hassan across the street in Beirut. Today she says she will not buy even a single apple from him again. "I will no longer deal with them," said Rajaa, now 55. "Everything has changed. They have instilled hate in our hearts. They terrified us and put us under siege."

"The fire is seething beneath the ashes," said lawyer Malek Owaydat, 72, referring to the increased hatred between Sunnis and Shiites after sectarian clashes that left nearly 40 people dead. His friend Nabil Zaydan added: "Tell the world to send us boats so we can leave the country. We can't live here any more. We're afraid even to talk now" Zaydan lives in the mainly Sunni Tareeq al-Jadeedeh district where the streets were deserted. "It's like the days when the Syrians were here," he said, referring to the 29 years to 2005 when Lebanon's larger neighbour mainatained a large troop and intelligence presence in Beirut.

While there was no visible presence of gunmen on the streets, gaggles of young men roamed about creating an uneasy atmosphere. "They are still here. The minute they get an order, they will jump back on the streets," said Toufiq Itani, 70, as he sat on a street corner in front of a friend's shop in the Mar Elias neighbourhood that saw fierce Sunni-Shiite clashes on Wednesday night. "They kept telling us 'Sunni-Shiite' and brought us to this point. Now people are starting to look at each other differently," he said.

Maha, 36, clutched her son's hand as she ventured out for the first time in days. "All I feel is the injustice of all this," she said, rushing to see her relatives. "Look at all the damage. What did we ever do to them? We never attacked them." The smell of cinder filled the morning air as cleaning crews swept broken glass and debris off the streets.