More than 55,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon, and more than a quarter of a million people have been evacuated from Israel since October 7, in an internal displacement movement that is the largest in the history of the Israeli occupation.
This came in the midst of the escalation of confrontations and the expansion of clashes between Hezbollah and Israeli army forces on the southern border of Lebanon, amid fears that the fires of war would spread to other fronts.
On October 22, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “if Hezbollah decides to go to war, it will miss the Second Lebanon War and will make the biggest mistake of their lives.”
While the Secretary-General of the Lebanese Hezbollah said on November 3: “The blood of our martyrs and your martyrs in the south says to this enemy who may be thinking of attacking Lebanon… that you will commit the greatest foolishness in your history.”
As for Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, he stressed that “Lebanon is sovereign, the Lebanese army is present on the border, and I am making the basic effort so that Lebanon is not dragged into war.”
How did the specter of war draw the map of displacement in southern Lebanon?
The displacement of most of the residents of the border areas
On a road in Ainata, southern Lebanon, the Israeli occupation army targeted a civilian car, killing 3 sisters: Rimas, Talin, Layan Shor, and their grandmother, while they were trying to escape towards a safer place in the capital, Beirut.
This was at a time when the occupation army’s raids had not stopped for weeks, from Shebaa in the east to Naqoura in the west, passing through the central sector, which is considered Hezbollah’s popular and military stronghold.
The area of bombing expanded to reach a depth of between 5 and 8 kilometers from the Blue Line, and sometimes it reached further than that, as the bombing targeted a car about 45 kilometers deep into Lebanese territory on November 11 last year.
This escalation pushed more than 55,000 people living in villages adjacent to the Blue Line, including Alma Al-Shaab, Rmeish, Blida, and Mays Al-Jabal, to flee towards non-border areas in the South Governorate.
While some other displaced people headed towards other governorates, including Nabatieh, Mount Lebanon, and the Bekaa.
In this regard, Hassan Hamoud, Vice President of the Union of Municipalities of Tire District, confirms that “almost all of the residents are actually displaced, as more than 90% of the border strip’s population has displaced to safe areas.”
Hammoud points out that not all of those who left registered their names as displaced people, as “anyone who owns another house has not registered himself as displaced.”
He added: “From here we can compare the numbers. For example, the city of Bint Jbeil has a population of more than 30 thousand people. Almost all of them have been displaced from it, but the number of those registered may not have exceeded 5 thousand from this city.”
Areas where displaced people from southern Lebanon are distributed
Bint Jbeil witnessed the largest number of displaced people at 41%, followed by Marjayoun at 37%, while 73% of the total displaced people were distributed among 5 main regions out of a total of 25 regions in which they are located. These regions are: Tyre, Nabatieh, Beirut, Sidon, and Aley.
The city of Tire alone received about 17,000 displaced people, while Nabatieh received more than 8,000 displaced people.
71% of the displaced live with host families, while 23% of them chose to rent private housing, while 2% of them live in collective shelters, of which there are 12 centers, 4 of which are in Tyre.
In this context, the Vice President of the Union of Tire District Municipalities explains that the number of displaced people registered in Tire is 16,273, while the municipality has established 4 shelter centers, some of which are official schools.
As for the rest of the displaced, they are distributed in the villages of the Tire district and are in houses without rent, according to Hammoud, such as Burj Rahal in Abbasiya, Deir Qanun al-Nahr, and Tura, and they are “hospitated by their families and are not in asylum centers.”
How did the “Al-Aqsa Flood” affect the residents of Israeli towns?
Plan to evacuate Israelis on the Lebanese border
On the other side of the map, the scene was not different. Rather, the pace of displacement was higher in the Israeli towns adjacent to the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah and Palestinian factions’ missiles reached several areas, most notably Kiryat Shmona, and many other points in the Upper Galilee, in addition to Israeli military sites close to the border, including the “Al-Marj” military site and the Rmeim barracks.
This matter prompted Israel to activate a preliminary plan to evacuate 28 towns located two kilometers from the Lebanese border, from which about 27 thousand people were displaced.
The occupation authorities soon returned and announced the evacuation of 14 additional towns located 2 to 5 kilometers away, which led to the displacement of an additional 11 thousand people.
As for the largest displacement, it was from Kiryat Shmona, which amounted to 23 thousand people, bringing the number of displaced people from the north to more than 60 thousand who took refuge in hotels funded by the state in various places.
Among the places where residents of the border towns took refuge were: Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Eilat, in addition to Tiberias, where the population increased by 20% after receiving more than 10,000 people who were distributed in various places, including 35 hotels.
Regarding this issue, Benny Gantz, Minister in the Israeli Emergency Government, stated, “Israel seeks to achieve security in the northern region just as it seeks to achieve security anywhere else. It will continue to do whatever is necessary for that.”
Residents of the Gaza Strip refuse to return
The scene was not different in the southern regions of Palestine, which witnessed a huge displacement movement following the “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation, as the number of displaced people who evacuated their homes under orders from the state was estimated at more than 70 thousand people.
A large number of them live in the towns surrounding the Gaza Strip, which are 4 kilometers from the Strip, after they became a permanent target for rockets from Palestinian factions.
On orders from Israel, tens of thousands evacuated several towns, including Nahal Oz, Erez, and Zikim. The government also evacuated 29 other towns located 4 and 7 kilometers from Gaza, bringing the number of displaced people from them to 18,000 people.
As for the Sderot settlement, for example, it turned into what was described as a “ghost city” after about 30,000 people were displaced from it, according to Hebrew media.
Thus, the total number of displaced people who received direct evacuation orders from the government reached 130,000 people residing in more than 280 guest houses and hotels throughout the occupied territories, as part of evacuation plans in the north and south that cost the Israeli government about 700 million shekels.
However, the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies indicated that the actual number of displaced people reached more than a quarter of a million people, many of whom chose to flee on their own without receiving any direct orders to evacuate.
Despite the Israeli Defense Minister’s confirmation that the residents of the Gaza Strip will return to their homes at the beginning of the new year, many Israelis refuse to return.
The reason for this is that they do not feel safe in the areas that Israel has always claimed are safe, and which will require billions to re-equip and rebuild, according to The Guardian.
But on the border with Lebanon, the issue seems more complicated. Although the war did not start there, the constant skirmishes made the area quasi-military, which means that restoring security may take a longer time, according to Israeli Security Minister Gallant, in light of the population there losing confidence in the Israeli government. .
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2023-12-06 20:15:05
