BEIRUT – What is war for someone who lives in the Lebanese capital, but like me is lucky enough not to live in South Beirut? It is first of all concern and fear, it is the attempt to get used to the constant noise of the Israeli drones while at the same time always keeping an ear out to listen to the sound of the fighters waiting for the roar of the explosion that will certainly arrive. Then, it’s the look at the sky to understand from the columns of smoke where the bombs hit and how far away we are. And then, when the chorus of ambulance sirens begins, life outside South Beirut returns to its wartime normality. A script that repeats itself day and night.
The bivouac of those fleeing from bombs. In the streets, the war is accompanied by the thousands of terrified and lost faces of the displaced, who since the beginning of the war have been bivouacking on the Corniche (the capital’s seafront), in the central Martyrs’ Square and in the few public gardens of the city. They are the poorest of the displaced, those who have not found a place in the schools made available by the Government, who have no relatives or friends who can host them and who do not have the money to pay rent. For days they have been living on the street, without shelter, they sleep leaning on the bundle that they managed to take away from home and they wait for the arrival of a van from some association to have something to eat.
The civilian victims, who live in the Shiite strongholds. From 23 September to 6 October, according to an official report, 2,036 people died and 9,662 were injured, almost all of them civilians, who lived in areas with a strong Shiite presence and therefore potential Hezbollah strongholds. In the same period, the number of displaced people rose from 150,000 to more than one million.
My whole life in a backpack: “I’m Shiite but not from Hezbollah.” “Israel says it is hitting Hezbollah strongholds, but it is massacring women and children.” Leaning on an old military backpack, which contains everything he has left, Ali wants to tell what he has experienced. “I am Shiite, but I am not from Hezbollah, I have never loved the combination of politics and religion. I am 75 years old and during the civil war I fought with the Lebanese army to defend my country and not with a faction. I had always lived in Haret Hreik, my neighbors were Sunni and Druze and in our cellars there were boxes of books and old bicycles. Five nights ago we left in a hurry, the next day our building was razed to the ground. Now all my past, but also my future is inside this backpack, and I am one of the lucky ones. Yesterday I went to the funeral of a family who lived in a building not far from mine. The funeral of a family because all five died under the bombs, including Aisha, a three-year-old girl.”
There is a need for help, there is a need to stop the war The guys from a volunteer association emptied the van and distributed bottles of water and bags of bread. “For now we can go back to the warehouse, load and leave for a new distribution – says Michael – unfortunately, the stocks are running out and the people on the street continue to increase. These people have been on the streets for days, they have no toilets, they have no shelter, the sick do not have the medicines they need, there are no diapers for the youngest children, nor sanitary napkins for women. I don’t know what we will do if the situation continues like this. There is a need for international help, but above all there is a need to stop the war.”
The United Nations and Italy’s commitment. The United Nations has launched an urgent appeal, at least half a billion dollars is needed to deal with the first phase of the emergency of displaced people in Lebanon. Lebanese institutions, already exhausted, cannot face this latest crisis alone. In response to “Lebanon Flash Appeal” presented by the United Nations in coordination with the Lebanese Government, Italy has allocated 17 million euros to be allocated to the “Lebanon Humanitarian Fund”, managed by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and to Italian Civil Society Organizations active in Lebanon.
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