For 66 days, an intense bombing campaign by Israel wreaked havoc across Lebanon. Airstrikes frequently destroyed residential buildings in heavily populated areas throughout the country, often striking with little warning.
While Israel first began hitting targets in southern Lebanon in October 2023, the escalation in violence in September of last year was on a different scale. In little more than two months, more than 3,000 people had been killed and over 14,000 injured until a temporary ceasefire was agreed at the end of November. At its height, the bombing campaign caused 1.3 million people to flee their homes, nearly a quarter of the entire population of Lebanon. While most were able to move in with relatives or rent another home, nearly 200,000 had no choice but to seek safety in cramped collective shelters.
More than 5,000 buildings were destroyed or severely damaged during the war. The World Bank estimates that the cost of the war to Lebanon was $8.5 billion in physical damage and economic loss.
All of Christian Aid’s local partners in Lebanon responded to this immense crisis by diverting resources to support those impacted by the war. They carried out this vital work despite many of their own staff also fleeing their homes.
Fadwa Farhat, from Christian Aid’s local partner Mouvement Social, lived with her family in the Dahiyeh area of south Beirut. Fadwa’s home was destroyed on the last day of the war after the building next to her home was blown up by an airstrike, causing massive damage to her family’s apartment. Fortunately, Fadwa and her family fled Dahiyeh two days before the bombing campaign started. “I had started to have nightmares, and I told my mom we had to leave. I told her I swear something bad would happen,” she said.
From the safety of their temporary residence in the hills just to the south of Beirut, Fadwa was able to watch the airstrike that destroyed her home.
From the balcony we could see all of Dahiyeh in front of us. As the bombing started we saw a straight line of explosions. I could tell that our house was in the firing line. My mom was devastated and started crying. I just felt numb. In total 20 buildings in Dahiyeh were targeted in just 120 seconds.
Dahiyeh, literally ‘suburb’ in Arabic, was the area of south Beirut hardest hit during the war with more than 350 buildings totally destroyed and around 4,000 damaged. Fadwa explains the media often fail to portray the reality of life in an area often associated with support for Hezbollah, a paramilitary armed group and political party holding seats in the Lebanese Parliament.
“The news doesn’t show you the diversity of Dahiyeh. It isn’t just an area where everyone is Shia or affiliated to a single political party. It is a very mixed area with people of different religious backgrounds, Muslim, Christian and Druze. I have lived in Dahiyeh since I was born and the people there are very good.”
While Fadwa’s mother is keen to rebuild her home, Fadwa is fearful of returning. “I love the area but I don’t want to live in Dahiyeh anymore. I feel the area will be attacked again. “
Despite the difficulties faced by Fadwa and her colleagues, Mouvement Social was able with Christian Aid funds to run a drop-in-centre in east Beirut throughout the war, providing a lifeline by giving displaced people somewhere to take a shower, clean clothes and cook food for their families.
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The majority of people who fled airstrikes came from the south of Lebanon, with nearly two thirds ending up in and around Beirut. In Tyre, the largest city in the south of the country, Christian Aid met Ibrahim, who lived with his young family in El Buss Palestinian Refugee Camp.
Christian Aid first start supporting Palestinians in Lebanon in the early 1950s, helping refugees forced from their homes during the Nakba (catastrophe in Arabic) and the creation of the state of Israel. To this day Palestinian refugees struggle in Lebanon and more than 80% live in poverty. Around half of the 500,000 Palestinians in Lebanon live in 12 official refugee camps. As Palestinians the camps could be targeted by Israeli airstrikes many fled as soon as the war began.
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Like Fadwa’s apartment, Ibrahim’s home was also destroyed after an airstrike hit a neighbouring building. It also took place just days before the ceasefire.
“It was just luck that we weren’t at home as we were planning to move back from the north because we thought it was safe here,” explained Ibrahim. “Everything was completely destroyed. I am just waiting now for people to help me remove the rubble. But I don’t have the money for any repairs. It took me eight years to build my home.”
At nearby Burj Shamali Palestinian refugee camp, Christian Aid movingly heard about the dangers faced by rescue workers during the war. Nour (not her real name) is an English
teacher working with Christian Aid’s local partner Najdeh, who provided emergency supplies in Palestinian refugee camps to people impacted or displaced by the war.
The mother of three’s husband was a volunteer rescue worker with the civil defence in Tyre. He was killed as he responded to an airstrike that hit a local educational institution.
Nour’s husband’s bravery is even more remarkable because of his clear understanding of the acute dangers he faced. “He knew he would be killed in this war,” she recalled. “He told me that when I hear about his death that I needed to be strong. He refused to go with me to the north because he wanted to do his duty.”
Despite everything she has gone through, Nour’s only thought is for her children. “My children miss their dad so much. They always ask about him. They are still in shock. I am trying my best to support them and give them everything they need. I want to keep them safe and not feel their father’s absence,” she said.
The vital role of rescue workers was further emphasized to Christian Aid during a visit to the disaster risk operations room in Beirut’s municipal offices. Here, Christian Aid’s local partner the Lebanese Red Cross liaised with fellow ‘first responders’ from a wide range of agencies including the fire brigade and police, as well as community emergency response volunteers involved in the rescue and delivery of first aid to those injured in airstrikes.
Working closely together in a voluntary capacity, the operations room coordinated rescue efforts to save many lives as well as helping many thousands of displaced people find shelter and making sure aid reached those most in need.
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Kassem Chaalan, led the Disaster Risk Reduction team at the Lebanese Red Cross in Beirut and played a pivotal role in helping coordinate the civilian and government emergency response during the war.
Part of this coordination was helping bring agencies together in advance of the war. However, as Kaseem explains, nothing could fully prepare them for the scale of the crisis that Lebanon would face.
Kaseem said: “We thought this war would be like the war in 2006, and planned our response based on these figures. However, the 2006 war was a child’s play compared to what took place in this war.”
When the war started we didn’t sleep for four days.” Kaseem recalled. “People fled from the south in huge numbers. People slept in the streets in those first days. The temperatures were dropping and we were under pressure to get people off the streets and into shelters. Within 48-hrs we had around 68k people living in shelters in and around Beirut and another 400k people living outside the shelters living with relatives or renting rooms or second homes.
The Lebanese Red Cross also played a life-saving role by making sure blood supplies reached hospitals. So many people were injured during the war that the Lebanese Red Cross needed nearly twice as many units of blood and in the end supported over 30,000 patients. With funding from Irish Aid, the Lebanese Red Cross was able to provide a further 4,650 blood bags to blood banks to supply three hospitals treating the injured.
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Rosamond Bennett, Chief Executive of Christian Aid Ireland, took the opportunity to donate blood during her visit to Lebanon. She said: “While a small gesture, donating blood felt like an important act of solidarity during these difficult times.”
Thanks to donations from supporters to our Middle East appeal, Christian Ad was also able to fund the distribution by the Lebanese Red Cross of over 1,000 medical devices, including folding walkers, medical beds & mattresses
Christian Aid’s partners worked tirelessly throughout the crisis and I’m proud we were able to offer them additional support to reach even more people in need.