Fleeing Hezbollah stronghold, Beirut’s displaced met with suspicion and paranoia

Israel’s bombardment of Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold has forced tens of thousands to flee to the city center, but many in sectarian Lebanon view the newcomers with suspicion, worried they too might become targets.

For weeks, Israeli strikes have widened in pursuit of Hezbollah members, leading many Lebanese to shun civilians from the same religious community as the Iran-backed terror group, which began firing rockets at Israel on October 8 last year in support of Hamas.

“Our neighbors found out we were housing people from Dahiyeh [Beirut’s southern suburbs] and they panicked and started asking questions,” said 30-year-old Christina, asking to be identified by only one name.

She took in displaced people but soon asked them to leave after neighbors, concerned the newcomers might be Hezbollah operatives, bombarded her with messages.

Hezbollah, the only side to retain its arsenal after the 1975-90 civil war, has strong support within Lebanon’s Shiite Muslim community.

But Lebanon remains split over the terror group’s decision to open a front against Israel in solidarity with Gaza and drag the country into war.

Lebanon’s power-sharing system divides authority among 18 religious sects, with Shiites, Sunnis, and Christians maintaining a fragile balance.

Many are still haunted by the civil war, which saw families displaced and homes seized, with the latest Israel-Hezbollah war reviving distrust and sectarianism in the divided country.

“There are growing tensions and suspicions toward displaced people because they are from the same religious group as Hezbollah,” Christina said.

“Some people are scared that one of their family members might be a target and they don’t want to risk” it, she told AFP.

‘Bearded men’

After nearly a year of cross-border clashes, Israel intensified its bombing campaign on September 23, after deciding to make the return of northern residents to their homes an official war aim. Some 60,000 residents were evacuated from northern towns on the Lebanon border shortly after Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, out of fear Hezbollah would carry out a similar attack.

The strikes have killed more than 1,110 people, according to an AFP tally of official figures. Israel has said that hundreds of Hezbollah operatives are among the dead.

More than one million people, about a sixth of Lebanon’s population, have been displaced, many flocking to Beirut, which is now overwhelmed.

The influx has strained services in the crisis-hit country, with traffic congestion, disruptions to daily life, and garbage piling up on the streets.

According to the education ministry, 973 public schools around the country have become makeshift shelters, with 773 of them unable to welcome any more displaced.

Panic gripped Souheir, a 58-year-old homemaker after a displaced Shiite family moved into her building.

The women wore chadors, a full-body robe that is an unfamiliar sight in central Beirut.

“We’ve been seeing more women in chadors, bearded men, and young men in black — a sight we’re not used to seeing,” she added.

Souheir admitted she was not immune to the general paranoia.

When she went for coffee at a friend’s, she saw bearded men on the balcony — displaced relatives who sought refuge there.

She cut her visit short because she worried they could be Hezbollah members.

“People are looking at each other with suspicion on the streets,” she said. “They’re scared of each other.”

Tensions are also high outside Beirut, where Israeli strikes have hit displaced people beyond Hezbollah’s strongholds, including in the Druze village of Baadaran.

“People used to rent out houses to anyone at first, but now they’re being extra-cautious,” said Emad, 68, who lives in a Druze village about an hour away from Baadaran.

Elie, 30, who asked to be identified only by his first name, said no one in his Christian village had rented out to the displaced, who mostly live in shelters nearby.

“People are scared because we can’t know if there are Hezbollah members among” them, he said.

“They also fear that the displaced could stay in the apartments permanently or semi-permanently since many of their houses were destroyed.”

Civil war memories

Incidents of displaced people breaking into empty buildings in search of a place to sleep have revived memories of the civil war when more than 150,000 people were killed and militias seized homes.

Last week, police said “a very small number” of displaced people broke into private properties and that they were “working to remove them.”

Businessman Riad, 60, said his sister-in-law had been house-sitting their central Beirut apartment after repeated inquiries about rentals.

“We experienced this in the ’70s and ’80s. Even if you asked an acquaintance to live in your house,” armed groups would seize the apartment anyway and give it to displaced families from their own community, he said.

“It took some people a decade before regaining their house… This is why people are panicking,” he added. “It happened once and it will happen again.”

Attacks on northern Israel had resulted in the deaths of 26 civilians in Israel. In addition 33 IDF soldiers and reservists have died in cross-border skirmishes and in the ensuing ground operation launched in southern Lebanon in late September.

Two soldiers have been killed in a drone attack from Iraq, and there have also been several attacks from Syria, without any injuries.

Hezbollah has named 516 members who have been killed by Israel during the ongoing skirmishes, mostly in Lebanon but some also in Syria. Another 94 operatives from other terror groups, a Lebanese soldier, and dozens of civilians have also been killed. These numbers have not been consistently updated since Israel began a new offensive against Hezbollah in September, including a ground operation in which the military says at least 440 Hezbollah operatives have been killed.