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Thousands of people have flocked to the Lebanese town of Aley, about 12 miles from Beirut, since Israel stepped up its airstrikes against Hezbollah – fleeing south where the bombing has been focused.
Schools and other available buildings have been converted into shelters. “How many people we (have) received exactly cannot be known, because the number continues to increase”, said Badr Zeidan, the district governor who coordinated the effort. On Tuesday, the number could reach 10,000, he said. “We register and then distribute to schools or empty houses,” said Mr. Zeidan. “Some residents or homeowners even donate their apartments.”
Nasreen and her family arrived at Aley very early in the morning, having barely slept. “It took us 13 hours to get from Qana to Ghaziyeh, which normally takes less than an hour,” he said. The Independent. “After that, it still takes 7 hours to reach Aley. We arrived at 3 in the morning.”
“On Monday morning”, Nasreen added, “we started to see updates and news reports about the escalation. I thought it would be as usual, so I wanted to stay. But then they started shelling the hills around us, and the bombardments came closer and closer. We smell bomb. Then we started to see traffic. My children panicked and we decided to leave.
The trip to Beirut was exhausting. “People are panicking, there is no food or water, and we see missiles hitting the village and buildings around us while we are stuck in traffic. The ambulance can’t get through, it can’t be done,” he said.
Attacks from Israel – with Hezbollah responding with dozens of rockets fired across the border into Israel – continued until Tuesday, with a death toll of at least 558 dead and more than 1,800 injured in two days, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health – separately. authority to Hezbollah. That includes 50 children and 94 women. The ministry added that the “majority” of those killed were unarmed civilians in their homes. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also confirmed that two UN employees were killed in Monday’s attack.
At least six more people were killed in another Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said – with more than a dozen wounded. Israel’s military says it has killed a senior Hezbollah commander, Ibrahim Qubaisi, who it says is Hezbollah’s missile and rocket commander.
Israel has asked civilians to evacuate areas near Hezbollah’s weapons storage sites, but residents may not know they are close. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to strike Hezbollah targets and called on Lebanese citizens to escape the clutches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
“Anyone who has missiles in their living room and rockets in their garage will not have a home,” Mr Netanyahu said at an army base in an undisclosed location after the military said it had found ammunition in homes.
“Our war is not with you, our war is with Hezbollah. Nasrallah is leading you to the abyss… Get yourself out of Nasrallah’s grasp, for your own good.”
The incident has pushed the already volatile region to the brink of full-scale war, with fears the attack could be a precursor to an Israeli ground offensive into Lebanon. The threat of an all-out war has spiked in recent weeks, after nearly a year of cross-border fire sparked by Israel’s war against another group backed by Iran, Hamas, in Gaza. Hezbollah says it will not stop firing until there is a ceasefire in Gaza, as the war there was sparked by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 that killed around 1,200 people – with another 251 taken hostage. Israeli air and ground attacks in Gaza have killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and displaced more than 90 percent of the population.
“A full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest; even if the situation escalates, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” US President Joe Biden told the UN General Assembly in New York about the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border. To applause, Mr. Biden also called on Israel and Hamas to meet the terms of the ceasefire and hostage release deal proposed by Washington, Qatar and Egypt.
In Aley, one of the officials helping to coordinate Lebanon’s aid efforts, Laura Mukhtar abu Hassan said that up to 50 families had arrived. “People are in a very bad situation. They need food, diapers and milk for their children and they don’t have the medicines they need”, he said while showing a list of badly needed medicines.
So Hassan Abdallah fled Maarakeh, about 50 miles south of Beirut, and is also waiting for shelter with his family. “My son’s friend died in a village close to us yesterday. I see the fear in my son’s eyes.” He thought this might be the start of a months long battle.
Mr. Abdallah did not pack anything before fleeing with his family and relatives. “All I want are these clothes”, he says, wearing only a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops. stay. Then we saw missiles everywhere near our house.
He was worried about where he was going to spend the coming weeks and how he was going to make money. “I sell used clothes, and if I don’t work, I don’t have any income,” he said.
Mr. Abdallah remembers the 2006 war, when Israel attacked southern Lebanon in a month, large-scale attacks in mainly southern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut. “At that time I was also in the south and fled to Syria. We were well received there,” said Mr. Abdallah. “But now the situation is more serious. There are more missiles and they are destroying everything. They are even bombing their neighbors. We know very well and they are not with Hezbollah. All they do is tobacco.
Rola Saad has just moved to school in Aley with her sister’s family. “We fear a big war. I hope the international community intervenes and ensures concessions from both sides. A bigger war will be terrible, all sides have victims, including in Israel. All we want is to go home and live.”
