Zahraa Cheikhouna only has one wish: “Find permanent accommodation, where you feel at least a little protected. » Tuesday 1Ahem October, as Israeli surveillance drones crackle in the sky, this 26-year-old woman recounts the night she just spent with her husband and two young children, in the igloo tent they managed to find: “I didn’t sleep. We heard the sound of explosions from the attacks in the distance, in the southern suburbs. [de Beyrouth]. The children were scared. Then the rain came. What will we do if the rainy season starts? »
Restless, like all of Lebanon, she points to a foreign bomber (Beirut has none) that has begun to descend towards the airport, shuddering: “What is this? Is it going to bomb us?” Her husband didn’t sleep a wink either: “He stays awake every night, afraid that thugs will approach. » A gust of wind lifts part of the small tent, pitched on a sidewalk in central Beirut, between an area of bushes and the boardwalk adjacent to Zaitunay Bay, a yacht marina lined with restaurants now closed and whose access has been closed with a padlock. so that the displaced could not access it.
Refugees in schools
Zahraa fled with her family, “four on a scooter”the Laylaki district, in the southern suburbs of the capital, on the night of Friday, September 27 to Saturday, September 28, after the gigantic Israeli bombings that killed Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah. These, like the evacuation orders that followed and the intense night attacks, caused the exodus of many inhabitants of the vast Shiite periphery, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Several hundred thousand people lived there.
Other families set up tents or improvised tarps on the same sidewalk. Unflappable Beirutians pass by while jogging. Shortly before, volunteers distributed some food among the displaced. “We call the schools [ouvertes comme abris pour les déplacés] to arrive, but they are full. “We cannot afford to rent accommodation.”Zahraa explains. They did not take any belongings and cannot return to look for them: “The street leading to our house is closed and full of debris. » During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, intense Israeli shelling was heard again in the southern suburbs.
In this country of 5.5 million inhabitants, the offensive of the Jewish State launched on September 23 with the aim of defeating Hezbollah has thrown around a million people onto the roads, according to the Lebanese authorities (a figure taken by the UN). Urgent and chaotic departures from the south and east of the country, as well as from the southern suburbs of the capital, predominantly Shiite regions.
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