SEBLINE, Lebanon — The war in Gaza has always been personal for many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
Many live in camps created after 1948, when their parents or grandparents fled their homes in lands that became Israel, and they have watched with dismay the year-long news of destruction and displacement in Gaza.
Although Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed some senior figures from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, the camps that house many of the country’s approximately 200,000 refugees appear relatively safe for the general population.
That has changed.
Tens of thousands of refugees fled as Israel launched an offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah, amid a continued escalation of war in the Middle East. For many, it’s like living through the horrors they’ve witnessed on their screens.
Small screen terror becomes a personal reality
Manal Sharari, from the Rashidiyeh refugee camp near the southern coastal town of Tyre, was trying to protect her three young daughters from images of children injured and killed during the Gaza war, even as she followed the “minute by minute” news.
In recent weeks, she has been unable to protect them from the sound of bombs falling nearby.
“They were scared and became anxious every time they heard the sound of a strike,” Sharari said.
Four days ago, the Israeli military warned camp residents to evacuate as it launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon – similar to the series of evacuation orders that prompted Gaza residents to flee across the enclave for months.
Sharari and her family also fled. They now live in a vocational training center turned shelter for displaced people, run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the town of Sebline, 55 km to the north. Some 1,400 people stay there.
Mariam Moussa, from the Burj Shamali camp, also near Tyre, fled with her extended family about a week earlier when strikes began hitting the outskirts of the camp.
Before that, she said, “we saw the scenes of Gaza and what was happening there, the destruction, the children and the families. And in the end, we had to flee our homes, like them.
The world is preparing to welcome more refugees
Israeli officials said the ground offensive in Lebanon and the week of intense bombardment that preceded it were aimed at pushing Hezbollah from the border and allowing residents of northern Israel to return home.
The Lebanese group began launching rockets at Israel in support of its ally, Hamas, a day after the Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Israel responded with airstrikes and bombings, and the two sides quickly found themselves locked in a low-intensity conflict that lasted several months and has escalated sharply in recent weeks.
Lebanese officials say more than a million people have been displaced. Palestinian refugees represent a relatively small but growing proportion. At least three camps – Ein el Hilweh, el Buss and Beddawi – were directly hit by the airstrikes, while others received evacuation warnings or witnessed strikes nearby.
Dorothee Klaus, director of UNRWA in Lebanon, said around 20,000 Palestinian refugees have been displaced from camps in the south.
UNRWA was housing about 4,300 people – including Lebanese citizens, Syrian refugees as well as Palestinians – in 12 shelters as of Thursday, Klaus said, “and that’s a number that will now steadily increase.”
The agency is preparing to open three additional shelters if necessary, Klaus said.
“We have been preparing for this emergency for weeks and months,” she said.
Refugees are desperate and making do
Outside the center of Sebline, where he lives, Lebanese Abbas Ferdoun has set up a makeshift mini-market in the back of a van. He had to abandon his own shop outside the Burj Shemali camp and flee two weeks ago, only to end up at the shelter.
“Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, we are all in the same situation,” Ferdoun said.
In Gaza, UN centers housing displaced people were themselves targeted by strikes, with Israeli officials saying the centers were being used by fighters. Some fear that this situation will repeat itself in Lebanon.
Hicham Kayed, deputy general coordinator of Al-Jana, the local NGO that runs the Sebline shelter, said he felt “the international response to the destruction of these facilities in Gaza was weak, to be honest.” and that “fear is present” they could be targeted in the same way in Lebanon.
Sharari said she feels safe for now, but she remains worried about her father and others who remained in the camp despite warnings – and wonders if she will have a home to return to.
She still follows the news obsessively, but now, she says, “I follow what’s happening in Gaza and what’s happening in Lebanon.”
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