BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 16 (UPI) — Beirut has turned into a big shelter to accommodate an unprecedented number of displaced people who were forced to evacuate their villages and flee their homes in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as the city’s southern suburbs, after they were largely destroyed by Israel’s carpet bombing.
They are everywhere: along the corniche, in the streets, public schools, exhibition centers and even night clubs. Mostly fled with very few belongings.
The mass influx of the displaced, who exceeded 1.2 million mostly from Hezbollah’s strongholds, provoked a humanitarian crisis that bankrupt Lebanon cannot handle and raised fears of chaos and frictions among a deeply divided population over Iran-backed Hezbollah and its engagement in war with Israel.
However, the great support and empathy demonstrated by the country’s various communities was remarkable to many.
Nayef Yehya, a 60-year-old Shiite man from the border village of Kfar Kila, was displaced three times in the past eight months, moving his wife and five children from one region to another for safety.
Their final destination two weeks ago was the Omar Farroukh public school in Beirut’s mostly Sunni Tarik al Jadideh neighborhood. They spent 18 hours on the road for a trip that usually takes two hours.
On that day, the Israeli brutal bombing and evacuation orders pushed tens of thousands of people to leave southern Lebanon in a hurry.
Yehya said his house in Kfar Kila was destroyed for the second time since the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war.
“This time, the war is much more brutal and destructive compared to 2006 and previous wars,” he told UPI. “All the border villages were completely destroyed, and their inhabitants left.
“I hope this is going to be the last war so we can return to our villages, but our enemy [Israel] is not letting us live in peace.”
He found comfort and support at the Omar Farroukh School, where a group of young men and women volunteers helped to settle the displaced, gave them food and medicines, and cleared space in the classrooms.
“They were all very caring and are treating us very well,” said Lina, Yehya’s wife, who called on her displaced mother and father to join them at the school, which is now home to 327 people. “We feel lucky we found such a clean and secure place.”
A sign hanging on the school door read “Weapons and sharp tools are prohibited.” Host communities have been mostly fearful of the possible presence of armed men among the displaced.
With the deep political divisions and previous rounds of confrontation between Hezbollah and its Muslim and Christian opponents, renewed frictions or even a sectarian strife raise deep concerns.
“We are facing a big problem, a dangerous situation whereby we need to support the displaced until the time comes for their return [to their villages],” former Interior Minister Marwan Charbel told UPI, noting that he has “no fear for now” of internal violence breaking out, thanks to great efforts by the Lebanese Army and other security forces.
But if the war continues until the end of the year and beyond, with Israel’s relentless attacks forcing more people to flee and no more places to shelter them, Charbel said, “strife is then possible, with no one knowing how it would end …. That has always been Israel’s dream.”
People from various sects and regions were quick in coming to help the displaced, joining with non-governmental organizations, charity groups and friends to cover their immediate needs and sustain them for some months ahead.
Putting aside his own anti-Hezbollah political views, Chafic El Khazen did not hesitate when he saw one of his team members, Ali, weeping after he learned 17 of his family members fled their village in the eastern Hermel district and were staying in the street in Beirut.
Khazen made the quick decision, without consulting his partners, to escort them to his world-famous SkyBar/Skinn nightclub, the only place he thought about sheltering them. On the way from his home in Beirut’s Christian district of Ashrafieh to the nightclub, he spotted an elderly couple, and he took them, too.
By the time he reached SkyBar/Skinn, he had gathered 80 people from the streets, mainly children and the elderly.
With the help of his team and friends, Khazen quickly turned the venue into a well-organized shelter, dividing the space properly, fixing the showers, bringing in mattresses and covers, securing electricity and Internet, as well as three meals a day provided by an NGO.
“Today, we are at our full capacity, with 650 displaced inside and men mainly outside the venue,” Khazen told UPI. He has been receiving big financial contributions from influential friends and other acquaintances who helped him host such a large number of people at a cost of $3,000 to $4,000 a day.
His displaced guests are Hezbollah supporters, while he is a staunch Hezbollah-Iran opponent,” he said. “They all know that I am against Hezbollah and will remain so. Now we are like one big family …. They appreciate very much what we are doing …. It is all about a beautiful vibe.”
Urgent humanitarian aid started to arrive in Beirut from several Arab and European countries, as well as international organizations. The United States announced that it will provide nearly $157 million in new humanitarian assistance to Lebanon.
With no cease-fire in place and winter approaching, the debt-stricken country would need much more of such assistance, not to mention the funds required for rebuilding homes and villages.
According to Mahmoud Jebai, a Lebanese economic expert, the cost of supporting “this big and unprecedented” number of displaced, was estimated at some $25 million a day.
“If world assistance continues in a steady way, that could possibly ease the displacement burden,” Jebai told UPI. However, he warned that if the war expands “as it happened in Gaza, with more and more people asked by Israel to evacuate over and over, the problem will be much, much bigger, posing a great danger to the country.”
He said that some 300,000 displaced were taken to shelters, while the remaining 900,000 are on their own, renting apartments, staying at hotels or being hosted by family and friends.
The question, however, is whether they would be able to handle such a displacement for many months at a time they have, like all Lebanese, lost their savings to the banks due to the 2019 financial crisis.
Moreover, Israel’s systematic destruction of large parts of southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, proved to be much bigger than the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war.
Jebai said reconstruction will not be possible without large Arab and international assistance, emphasizing the need to organize an international conference to help Lebanon. With the war still raging, it is hard to estimate the reconstruction cost but “it could well exceed $10 billion,” he said.
“What is needed is a cease-fire, putting pressure on Israel to accept it and Lebanon implementing all international resolutions [related to restoring calm along the border with Israel],” he said. “There is no other solution.”