Traumatised and exhausted, Lebanon’s internally displaced uncertain about future
I’m at a public school that has been turned into a shelter.
The charity in charge has told me that they’ve had really no assistance from the government – everything that they’ve done for the nearly 250 people who are now in this school and calling it their home has come from donations from the community.
There is a sense here that things are quite dire. The classrooms have been turned into bedrooms, with wooden desks put together to make beds without any mattresses or pillows or blankets. People are making do really with whatever little they have in this facility.
One family with five children originally from Syria said they fled their home in the south near the border with Israel very quickly under heavy Israeli air strikes. They were only able to gather their documents and get their five children into a vehicle and drive 150km (93 miles) to Beirut – normally it takes just over an hour, it took them 20 hours to get here.
They are traumatised, exhausted, scared and uncertain about what their future holds. Many people here are grateful for the assistance that they’ve been able to get so far but they are really worried about how long they will be here and whether they will be able to return to their homes in the south – and if there will be anything to return to.
So there is a lot of concern that they are going to be here indefinitely because clearly there is no end in sight in this conflict.
Displaced Lebanese recounts ordeal of deadly Israeli strikes
After evacuating her family from the village of Seddiqine in southern Lebanon, Feryal Mehsen went back to fetch belongings. It was then that an Israeli air strike hit close by.
Now in a shelter in Beirut, she sits scrolling through messages from friends and relatives checking if she survived the blast. “All the people rushed out but I don’t panic easily so I helped my neighbours get out. Then I came inside again and helped my family to leave with me,” Mehsen said.
She left with her daughter and grandchildren, taking them to the southern city of Tyre, before returning to Seddiqine to collect their belongings. “The rocket landed in front of me. I was shocked. I couldn’t hear or see after that. Dust was everywhere. So I drove off quickly.”
Israeli army must be ‘strongly prepared’ for Lebanon ground operation: General
The head of the Israeli army’s Northern Command has said the military should “strongly prepare” for a ground offensive into Lebanon.
Speaking to troops simulating a ground operation, Major General Ori Gordin referred to the launch of Israel’s new military campaign in Lebanon, saying it “began with a very significant blow to Hezbollah’s capabilities” with a focus on rocket capabilities and causing significant damage to the Lebanese group’s commanders and members.
He added that the Israeli army needed “to change the security situation” and be “strongly prepared to enter Lebanon in a [ground] manoeuvre”.
‘Even in Beirut, there is an atmosphere of war’
Souad Mahde, 63, was registering her name at a shelter in Lebanon after fleeing her village Qsaibah in the south. “The day before yesterday, strikes started getting closer and planes were in the sky. We were scared,” she said. As the strikes started to creep closer into the village from the fields outside, Qsaibah’s residents fled.
“The first thing I thought of was to take some clothes, so I could change if we got somewhere. Just the basics, and medicine, of course. Nothing more than that. No one cares any more about things like the house because fear takes over,” she said.
As people across southern Lebanon headed north, the roads filled with crawling traffic. A journey that would normally take two hours turned into a daylong journey.
“Our way out was very slow. The traffic was horrible. It was really hard. We moved for a bit and stopped for a bit. There were strikes here and there until we reached Beirut. It took us until evening.”
“Even in Beirut, there is an atmosphere of war. Of course, we are in a war.”
