Ali Daher first heard the explosion and then felt the pain. An Israeli plane flying overhead had launched two missiles at the adjacent building, knocking out the top two floors and showering Daher and her two children with a deadly hail of concrete and metal.
The target of the attack was the Dar al Salam Hotel – house of peace, in Arabic – in the town of Wardaniye, in southwestern Lebanon. In recent weeks, the establishment has been converted into a government center that houses 24 families who have been forced to flee their homes due to Israeli bombings. The House of Peace was born as a German-Lebanese center to promote cultural understanding. Now, bronze statues and pieces of Lebanese antiquities have been pushed aside to make way for mattresses and humanitarian aid boxes.
The attack on October 9 left five dead and 12 injured. It was the first time that Wardaniye was targeted by Israel, but it was the latest in a series of Israeli attacks against buildings housing displaced people in areas of Lebanon considered safe and that, until the time of the bombings, had not been the scene of fighting. .
“We wanted to go to a safe place, where there were no bombings, war or [milicias]so we came here. Why did they attack this building? We don’t know,” laments Ali Daher, a 36-year-old deminer who left the southern city of Tire on September 30. He shows his broken wrist and points to his twelve-month-old son Karim, whose arm is bandaged after it was torn by a piece of debris.
Fear of Israeli bombings
The attack has also shaken Lebanese society. Local authorities have said that fear of Israeli attacks has exacerbated tensions between members of the country’s numerous religious communities and the displaced, mostly Shiite Muslims, whom they fear taking in. The hoax has grown that there are fighters from the Shiite group Hezbollah – against which Israel launched this offensive a month ago – hiding among the displaced people, despite the fact that the vast majority of them are civilians.
In the last year, more than 1.2 million people have had to leave their homes in Lebanon, the majority since September 23, when Israel intensified and expanded its air campaign over areas of the country considered Hezbollah strongholds. Many have sought refuge in predominantly Christian and Druze areas, where they had escaped Israeli bombing.
“We are still terrified, I can barely hear out of my ears. We are very tired. I have started taking tranquilizers,” explains Daher while his son waits in the stroller. He can’t help but wince when there is a huge boom, the sound of an Israeli plane breaking the sound barrier amplified by the altitude of the town of Wardaniye. “Wait for the next one,” he says, pointing a single finger at the sky in anticipation of the second roar.
Lebanon’s painful history of interreligious violence, with a civil war that lasted fifteen years (1975 – 1990) among a dizzying and ever-changing mosaic of sectarian alliances, has made the possibility of new clashes between communities a major cause for concern. .
In most cases, such as Monday’s attack on the predominantly Christian town of Aitou (north), which killed 21 people who were in a residential building rented to displaced people, there have been no other attacks in the Wadarniye area. Likewise, the September 28 attack on Baadaran, in the predominantly Druze province of Chouf (center), in which eight people died, was Israel’s only attack against the town.
The deadliest Israeli attack in Lebanon since the beginning of the war took place on September 29 in Ain al Delb, a town located on the outskirts of Sidon (south). The bombing, which killed 71 people, came after displaced families moved into an apartment building. It was the first time that the town was a target of attack. Israeli authorities have not referred to any of the attacks on buildings housing displaced people, instead maintaining that their military operation in Lebanon is directed against Hezbollah fighters, facilities and weapons depots.
“Sowing terror”
Ali Breem, mayor of Wardaniye, told Guardian that the objective of these attacks against displaced people is to “spread terror” and provoke fear among the population towards displaced people from other communities. Since September 23, this town, which has about 5,000 inhabitants of different faiths, has welcomed more than 8,000 people.
“They are attacking a town that is supposed to be safe. Even if there was a military target, if there was a target visiting his family in Baadaran or somewhere else, they could have waited and attacked him somewhere else,” Breem denounced. He also noted that the airstrike has failed to change the willingness of Wardaniye residents to welcome displaced people fleeing Israeli bombing.
Last week, the Israeli army attacked Wardaniye again: it bombed a house after warning local residents to stay away from an alleged Hezbollah facility. No one was injured in the attack and although residents and displaced people fled before the attack, almost all were able to return.
In Achrafiye, the majority Christian neighborhood in east Beirut, groups of men have put on uniform and begun patrolling at night, armed with batons. A neighborhood watch program, which had been interrupted in the summer of 2023, was reactivated on October 5 amid a feeling of “growing insecurity” among residents, explained Akram Nehme, administrator of Achrafiye 2020 who manages the initiative.
Nehme said that the fact that the night patrols have been activated again has nothing to do with the arrival of displaced people, but is a decision that was made a few months ago. The program, which relies on donations from Achrafiye residents, suddenly received more funding.
Unlike other areas of Beirut, where displaced families line up at community kitchens and sleep on sidewalks, there are no displaced people on the streets of Achrafiye. Privately, many residents say they are afraid to take in people from southern Lebanon or Beirut’s southern suburbs, fearing their presence would make the neighborhood a target for Israeli bombs.
Nehme admits that the possibility of an attack gives them “great anxiety”: “If a building in Achrafiye is attacked, it will be a real problem. Until now, we have attracted people with money, but the truth is that a person with money can be a terrorist.”
In other parts of the capital, it seems that the social fabric has already begun to fray under the pressure of mass displacement. A sense of justice among the population has begun to take root in Dahie, the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, which have been left mostly empty as a result of intense Israeli bombing since the end of September.
This week, men accused of looting abandoned homes were severely beaten and tied to lamp posts, with the word “thief” painted on their chests. Lists of Israel’s “collaborators” have begun to circulate on social media, mainly made up of people critical of Hezbollah. Images abound of citizen arrests of individuals accused of spying for Israel, with little evidence provided.
Some Shiite families have begun to plan a flight to Iraq, fearful of the reprisals they may suffer in the face of the advance of Israeli troops in southern Lebanon and the Israeli missiles launched against displaced people heading north. The Lebanese General Directorate of Security has simplified procedures: now citizens only need an identity document to travel to Iraq.
Lebanese authorities say they are aware of the possibility of a social implosion. When waves of displaced people arrived in Beirut a month ago, soldiers were deployed at the city’s main intersections and have patrolled those areas ever since. Nasser Yassin, interim Minister of the Environment and head of the crisis cell of the Lebanese Government – which is in office – pointed out that “the various security agencies are evaluating the situation and addressing it from a security approach.” The situation “also requires a lot of dialogue, which we are carrying out at the local level between the different community groups so that there are no tensions,” he added.
Despite growing fears, displaced people continue to be welcomed and cared for throughout Lebanon. In Wardaniye, displaced people living in the Dar al Salaam hotel have been relocated to locals’ homes. A young couple has taken in Daher and his family, and increased the power supply to their home to ensure the comfort of their guests. Still, the couple asked not to be named, fearful that hosting the displaced family would turn their home into a target for Israel.
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