Beirut, Lebanon – On the night of the sixth exhibition, a sudden explosion severely damaged Dina's home* in the Burj el-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. It was caused by the shock wave of the Israeli air attack, during which dozens of bombs were dropped at once on a residential complex near Dahiya, a suburb south of the capital that is about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the refugee camp. .
The massive attack killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and an unknown number of civilians after destroying several residential buildings, leaving thousands of people helpless. Dina (35 years old) explained that the explosions shattered the windows of small shops and cars in the camp, ripped out doors, and destroyed nearby buildings and homes.
The explosions will cause chaos as thousands of people and vehicles rush through the square towards their stark exits. Dina grabbed her 12-year-old daughter and ran down the stairs from her house, where she saw her beloved God covered in rubble.
At first I was afraid that my mother had died, or that Dina's daughter would die. However, it was discovered that she was still conscious.
“Minha May was confused and delirious, but I helped him and told him we had to run. I knew more bombs were hitting,” Dina told Al Jazeera in a café in Hamra, a crowded neighborhood in central Beirut that is accommodating thousands of displaced people from all over Lebanon.
A crisis without precedent
Israel intensified its conflict with Hezbollah in the second half of September, devastating southern Lebanon and causing a mass exodus.
According to the UN Cabinet for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), thousands of people have been displaced from their homes due to Israeli attacks, 90 percent of them in the past week.
More Lebanon's interim government – operating without a president and supporting him Serious economic crisis – It is designed to respond to people's needs. Melhares sleeps in the classroom after his judgement Converting more than 500 schools into shelters for displaced people.
Thousands more sleep in mosques, under bridges and in the streets. But the crisis may worsen further now that Israel has begun a ground offensive.
“A ground invasion will exacerbate the problem,” said Karim Emil Bitar, professor of international relations at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. “We no longer have more than a thousand people leaving their homes. “This is roughly the same number we had in 1982, when Israel invaded Lebanon and took Beirut.”
Moments after Israel announced its ground attack, it ordered civilians to evacuate 29 cities outside Lebanon.
Noura Sarhan, from southern Lebanon, said that her uncle is still in the border villages. He refused to leave when Hezbollah and Israel initially began a small-scale conflict on October 8, 2023.
Hezbollah began launching projects against Israel with the stated aim of relieving pressure on its ally Hamas in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 41,600 people and completely displaced 2.3 million of its population.
The devastating war in Gaza followed a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel, leaving 1,139 people dead and some 250 captured.
It appears that Israel and Hezbollah began exchanging fire, or that Sirhan's uncle chose to remain where he was. She suspects that he does not want to leave his home and the surrounding areas, despite the conflict that has cut him off from water and electricity. But since Israel announced its ground offensive, Sarhan's family has lost contact with him.
“When Israel (escalated the war last week), I thought it might have been safer for my uncle to stay in the village rather than risk fleeing the streets,” she told Al Jazeera.
Loss of home
Hundreds of thousands of people will leave their homes and villages in search of safety in Beirut, as is the case in the cities to the north.
Abdel Latif Hamadeh (57 years old) fled his home in southern Lebanon last week after Israel began bombing the area. He said that a bomb killed one of his victims, while another was trapped inside his house after the accumulation of rubble and destruction on the side of the entrance.
Hamada committed suicide to remove the rubble and save his life. He said that they would be able to escape five minutes before Israel bombed their homes.
“No response. “Deus o resgatou,” said Hamada, a man who lacks a child of rugas around two olhos.
Despite his quick escape, Hamada was not yet safe. The flight to Beirut took 14 exhausting and frightening hours, and the flight usually takes four hours. Thousands of cars rushed trying to reach a safe place, while the roads were cut off due to debris and stones torn from nearby homes and buildings.
“Israeli planes were everywhere and we saw them dropping bombs on our front. “I often had to leave the car to help remove debris and stones that were blocking our car,” Hamada told Al Jazeera.
Smoking another cigarette, Al-Hamada said that he was not afraid when Israel intensified its attacks. Throughout his life, Israel left his village three times, including during this His invasion of Lebanon in 1982 And so The devastating attack on the country in 2006.
In the last war, an Israeli bomb fell on his house and killed his wife, Khadija.
“I no longer have half my own life. This is the only place where you wait for the generation right in front of you,” Hamada said.
Permanent dislocation?
Civilians and analysts fear that the ongoing displacement crisis will end up being prolonged – even forever.
According to Michael Young, a Lebanese specialist at the Carnegie Middle East Center, Israel's goal in recent weeks has been to provoke a major humanitarian crisis for the Lebanese state, and especially for Hezbollah, which represents many of the country's successful Muslims.
What's so worrying about what Israel will do when it invades? Will they start blowing up houses with dynamite like Vizram in Gaza? In other words, do we turn a temporary humanitarian crisis into a permanent crisis, ensuring that no one returns (to their homes)? Welcome.
“This is a big question mark,” he added. “When the villages are evacuated, or what will the Israelis do with them?”
Hamada and Dina promised to come home when we could.
He said that his country and his family would soon return to Burj el-Barajneh – which has now become a ghost town – due to the terrible conditions in the IDP shelters, where there are only a few basic supplies and no running water.
Increasingly, there is a growing feeling among everyone in the country that Israel will turn large areas of Lebanon into a disaster zone, just as happened in Gaza.
“They will do the same thing here as they do in Gaza,” Dina said.
“This is a war against civilians.”
*Dina's name has been changed to protect her identity.
