The largest displacement of Lebanon has caused more than 90,000.000 people flee their homes in Israeli bombardments this week, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian coordination office
Childrens laundry hung from some of the classroom windows. Most of the families arrived with nothing, but their clothes.
One couple was looking at social media videos to see if their home was still standing. They used the names Um Ali and Abu Ali in order to be identified as the parents of Ali, because they wanted to be safe.
“The airstrikes were right next to our cars and the children were screaming and crying,” she says. With her husband’s arm bandaged and in a cast after being hit by shrapnel a month ago from an Israeli airstrike, the mother bundled 10 family members into a car and drove south on Monday.
The largest displacement of its citizens in decades led many people to flee south Lebanon Tuesday. More than 90,000 people fled their homes in intense Israeli attacks that killed almost 600 people in just two days this week, according to the United Nations’ humanitarian coordination office.
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Um Ali says that her daughter has been unable to sleep because of her not talking. Standing behind her mother, the girl says she’s OK, but then buries her face in her mother’s shoulder and starts to cry.
“Suddenly someone comes and makes your kids live in a state of fear, blood and destruction,” says her mother. It is not accepted that people living like that will be humiliated and see their lives torn apart.
It was too soon for the sense of loss that follows displacement to kick in. Abu Ali, a construction worker, and his wife refer to life in their border village in the present tense.
Um Ali, her face for a moment glowing with the memory of her life in the countryside, said that she grow everything and raise a few sheep. “We live a happy and beautiful life.”
Hezbollah began attacks last October to support Hamas in its fight against Israel in Gaza. Despite intense efforts by the United States and France to broker a cease-fire between Lebanon and Israel, Hezbollah has made clear that it will stop only when the fighting in Gaza stops.
A crowd of displaced people stopped outside an elementary school on the first day of classes at the Ahliah School in Berijub
Behind the school, a few boys kick around a blue ball on a concrete soccer field. Two sisters from the border town of Nabitieh are sitting in the courtyard. A young girl with bright purple nails recently did her nails. Her sister has long dark hair that’s been styled.
“It was so scary — not a little, a lot,” she says, adding they slept in their clothes when the strikes began during the night to be able to flee early the next morning.
There are lots of displaced families on the streets. Hotels are available for those who can afford them. A man requested five rooms but only for a night to give the family time to figure out their options.
“We have been trying to find an apartment but everyone now wants so much money, or six months in advance,” says a woman, sitting with her sister at one table. Like most displaced people, they did not want to be identified because they said they were afraid they could be targeted by Israel.
BEIRUT — Around the concrete courtyard of Ahliah School in the center of Lebanon’s capital, families perch on plastic chairs, sharing news of what houses they’ve heard have been destroyed in their villages near the southern border with Israel.
Many Lebanese fleeing the south took refuge with relatives in Beirut and other places, or searched for apartments to rent. But according to the U.N., about 40,000 of them sought shelter in more than 200 schools, which the Lebanese government asked to accommodate displaced people.
Cars full of tired-looking passengers pulled up outside of the Ahliah school on Tuesday. An aid official waved them on to other schools serving as temporary shelters. There was no room left with more than 600 people arriving in 24 hours.
It was supposed to be the first day of classes at the K-12 private school. Ahliah had to put desks in the hallways and make room for families to move in.
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At the U.N., Netanyahu vowed to “continue degrading Hezbollah” until Israel achieves its goals, further dimming hopes for an internationally backed cease-fire.
That has Lebanese fearing a repeat of the last Israel-Hezbollah war, in 2006, which lasted a month and caused heavy destruction over parts of their country. Or worse, they fear, Lebanon could suffer devastation on the scale caused in Gaza by Israel’s nearly yearlong campaign against Hamas.
More than 800 people have died in Lebanon this week as a result of Israeli strikes, and at least 25 more were killed early Friday, according to the Health Minister. He said there were many women and children dead.
