There's a drone flying overhead when Nour Shawaf answers her phone in Beirut.
The sound is omnipresent.
She says the buzzing is always there, endlessly humming above in the sky, whether it’s when she is at work or at home consoling her four-year-old son.
She explains the drone means nighttime is always spent sleeping next to her son.
"I cannot let go of him knowing that any minute this drone could lead to an airstrike," she tells RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
Any explanation to her son about the drones, and what they are, is impossible. She says: "You cannot explain to a four-year-old what's happening."
"He keeps asking what are those sounds that we're hearing? Why is there a buzzing sound over our head? Why won't it stop? Why is his school closing at times? Why are we confined to our home? And, I simply cannot explain," she adds.
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"Those are scary sounds...they make him want to hide...to hug you and hold on to you and not leave you because he simply does not understand what is happening or why this is this happening," Ms Shawaf says.
She works with Oxfam as its Regional Humanitarian Policy and Advocacy Advisor.
Her organisation is helping people access clean water, mattresses, sanitary pads and products and food.
For Ms Shawaf, the situation is helpless because she cannot protect her son fully.
"He hides behind his mother. He thinks that I am going to protect him.
"At times I feel that those small acts that I do, whether it's hugging him, or sleeping next to him, or allowing him to hide behind me when the drone is actually above us, are acts that will protect him…while deep down inside I know that this is physically impossible, so it's even more stressful.
"It’s more traumatic for me to know that even those attempts to protect my own child are in vain," she explains.
Terror and fear are part of her everyday life.
"I'm terrified. I'm terrified every single second of the day because I simply do not know what's going to happen. I do not know if Israel's next strike is going to be on my neighbourhood, on my office, at my son's school, on the way back from school - and that's still on the days where schools are open," she says.
The sound of air strikes is even more terrifying.
"The air strikes are the scariest because you do not know how close they are and you do not know what they have hit.
"When you hear the first one, you don't know if there's a second one coming…and with the new tactics that are being used: the multiple air strikes…the levelling of certain areas and villages…that there is always a thought that cannot escape: You, are you going to be next?" she says.
The 34-year-old is seven months pregnant. She is due to give birth to a new baby boy in December.
When the bombing happens she feels guilty about having a second child.
"Honestly, every time there is a strike, every time there's a Sonic boom or a fake raid, I feel it in my guts.
"It's as if the growing life in me feels that I'm afraid that I'm scared, but I'm also feeling guilty.
"I'm feeling guilty because there's a life growing in amidst all this chaos and catastrophic conditions.
"I cannot imagine how I'm going to give birth. Under those conditions, how am I going to care for a baby, for a newborn who will need all sorts of things that are not going to be available if the situation continues this way.
"We are all seeing that people are struggling to get milk and diapers. So, imagine how good the situation will be in two-and-a-half months from now if there's no ceasefire," she says.
Ms Shawaf does not know if she will have access to maternity services when December arrives.
However, she adds she cannot think that far because living in Lebanon is about survival.
"I do not have the luxury to think about: how I'm going to survive the next two months; how I'm going to give birth; where I'm going to give birth and if I'm going to have access to a hospital.
"We've seen mothers who ended up giving birth in shelters. And we've seen mothers who were not able to breastfeed as a result of the trauma that they're going through. And we've seen mothers who are not able to cater for their children. So, I'm not going to be the first one, if this happens to me," she says.
People have left everything behind them whilst fleeing Israeli bombing, they have nothing, she explains.
"Oxfam since the first day of the escalation has been providing assistance to those who have been displaced.
"We're providing clean water, we're providing mattresses and bedding kits because we have seen people who are sleeping on the street on concrete with no shelter. We're also providing food and essential food items so that people can eat.
"The people who are sleeping on the streets are basically people who have lost everything. They are telling us how they had to flee very quickly because the air strikes came," she says.
She adds that while some have left their homes after warning, others have had little warning, and as they were leaving they were "just being bombed as they fled their villages and their homes".
She says because of the 2019 economic collapse in the country that people are suffering more than in the 2006 war.
"Before the most recent escalation, we knew that Lebanon has been experiencing food insecurity following the economic crisis. Today the situation is getting worse because people do not have access to their jobs.
"Basically, if people cannot work, they cannot earn income and the prices of food, as shortages are expected in the near future, are increasing.
"People are having to make very difficult choices: Do I feed my children today with the money that I have left? Should I keep it for tomorrow and the week after so that I can still feed them later? Do I buy medicine for my elderly parents? Should I rent a smaller, safer space for my children to live in?," Ms Shawaf says.
