Hundreds of displaced families sleeping in public spaces in Beirut

(28 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut - 28 September 2024
1. Various of displaced people staying on ground in different areas of Beirut
2. Various of displaced people staying near Beirut promenade
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Bassel Hussein, Syrian refugee and displaced from Dahieh:
"We were sitting in our homes, safe in God's name, and today we heard that the airport road was bombed. When the bombing happened, my children started crying and holding on to us. We were forced to leave our homes. We went out and came here."
4. Various of Hussein sitting with his family
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Fatima Ziyada, Syrian refugee and displaced from Dahieh:
"I am a diabetic patient, I sat on the ground (below the house), I was not able to go out to get my children from my house, nor was I able to walk. I was screaming while the strikes was above us, we just want a safe place, we do not need clothes or aid or food or drink. We just want a safe place so that our children are not afraid, we left the Syrian war (2010, 2011) for the sake of the children, we came here and the same war happened."
6. Various of displaced people in streets, beach
STORYLINE:
Hundreds of displaced families slept in public spaces in Beirut as smoke continued to rise from Beirut’s southern suburbs Saturday.

The area was pummelled by heavy airstrikes that Israel said killed multiple Hezbollah commanders, including leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Many families took shelter in public squares and beaches or in their cars in the city center - which had so far been spared from the barrage - after making a fruitless circuit around overflowing shelters set up in schools.

On the roads leading to the mountains above the capital, lines of people could be seen early in the morning making an exodus on foot, holding infants and whatever belongings they could carry.

The wave of displacement comes alongside a rapid escalation over the past week that has killed more than 700 people in Lebanon and culminated with a massive barrage of strikes Friday and overnight that leveled a least six multi-story buildings.

For many residents of Beirut's southern suburbs - both Lebanese who had lived through the bruising monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006 and Syrians who had fled the war in their own country - the forced evacuation was disconcertingly familiar.

Fatima Ziyada, a Syrian refugee from Idlib, slept on the Ramlet al-Bayda public beach in Beirut with her family - and hundreds of strangers - after fleeing Dahiyeh on a motorcycle while strikes were above her, she said.

Some Syrians ended up on the streets after being turned away from the public shelters, but Ziyada said her family didn't even try at the schools.

They came directly to the beach.

“We only want a place where our children won’t be afraid,” she said.

“We fled from the war in Syria in 2011 because of the children and we came here and now the same thing is happening again.”

Since Monday, Lebanese authorities say some 22,331 Syrians in Lebanon have crossed back into Syria , along with 22,117 Lebanese.

Ziyada said return is not an option for her family.

The U.N. Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said the escalation that began earlier this week had more than doubled the number of people displaced by the conflict in Lebanon.

There are now over 211,000 people displaced - including some of the humanitarian workers who should be responding to the crisis - with some 85,000 sleeping in shelters, the agency said in a statement.


AP video by Ali Sharafeddine



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