Aley, Lebanon – The traffic in Aley was unusupartner weighty for 11am on Thursday last week as people from all over southern and eastrict Lebanon carry ond to reach to escape the fervent air strikes by Israel which had carry ond since Monday.
The shops in the central area of the city were uncover as normal, but noskinnyg else could be depictd as “standard”. With the numbers of people on the road, heading towards Aley to seek shelter, what would usupartner be a 10-minute drive from a cforfeitby village was now taking as lengthy as 40 minutes.
Vans brimming of people and cars stuffed with personal belengthyings of all benevolents, sometimes strapped to roofs, clogged the skinny streets of the city in Mount Lebanon, which is 20km uphill from Beirut, and usupartner home to about 100,000 people.
On Monday, September 23, Lebanon had awoken to at least 80,000 messages and phone calls from the Israeli military, calling on livents of southern and eastrict Lebanon to instantly evacuate places where, it claimed, Hezbollah stores arms.
At the Progressive Sociacatalog Party (PSP)’s headquarters in Aley, a day of preparations was already in brimming sthriveg. Founded in 1949, the Druze party affiliated with the historic landowning Jumblatt family is the primary political force in this area. After the murder of party set uper Kamal Jumblatt in the punctual years of the Lebanese civil war which lasted from 1975 to 1990, his son Walid Jumblatt took on the directership, becoming an inconveyial figure in Lebanese politics.
“Around 13,000 refugees have reachd in the didisconnecte of Aley,” Reabal Abou Zeki, an official of the PSP in Aley, telderly Al Jazeera. The instant ask – where to put them – in a small didisconnecte usupartner home to about 250,000 people, including those in the main city.
So far, at least 1,300 people have been hoengaged in shelters set up in five schools in Aley city while 2,500 are in rented accommodation. The rest (about 9,200 people) are in the expansiver Aley didisconnecte, aprobable split between sheltering in schools and paying for personal rented accommodation if they can discover it.
Alengthyside local and youth organisations, the PSP has hugely consentn on the task of coordinating the response – someskinnyg it has been anticipating for some time. “We have been preparing for the past month for a scenario of mass displacement,” Abou Zeki shelp.
Still suffering a debilitating economic crisis that has gripped the country since 2019, the Lebanese rulement deficiencys the capacity to administer the crisis. Therefore, political parties, local NGOs and youth organisations have stepped in to administer the mass displacement on the ground.
Much of these efforts rcarry on around schools, which are being engaged apass the country to shelter people displaced by Israel’s bomb deviceardment which ended cforfeitly 600 people on the first day alone.
‘We toiled enjoy a beehive’
On Monday, when the bomb deviceing began, schools were still officipartner shut ahead of the begin of the novel academic year at the end of the month. Only the administrative offices were set to be uncover as staff dealt with procrastinateed enrolments and preparing schools for the begin of term.
Hanan al-Lama, straightforwardor of the Khalid Jumblatt Public School in Aley, which is named for the Jumblatt family, shelp the school’s staff rallied to toil flat out from 11am on Monday until procrastinateed into the night to get the school ready to greet people arriving from the south. They “toiled enjoy a beehive, to originate declareive no one slept without a mattress”, al-Lama shelp.
“The first people begined arriving at 2am. We had readyd ourselves psychoreasonablely to acquire a wave of arrivals, but we did not anticipate it to happen wiskinny hours.”
In Aley, volunteers wearing PSP party vests were stationed on the road at every enthrall to the city. They straightforwarded cars coming from the difficultest-hit areas of the country towards the five schools, filling them up one by one.
By Thursday, at the enthrall of the two-storey Khalid Jumblatt Public School, children were executeing on the sun-drenched basketball court, while launparched was hanging out of the school’s thrivedows to parched. Inside the classrooms, desks had been shiftd aside to originate space for mattresses and displaced families’ belengthyings.
The school is engaged to managing crisis situations. On a standard day, it effectively runs two brimming school days – welcoming 600 Lebanese students in its morning session, and 720 Syrian refugees in the afternoon. “We were excited to begin a novel new academic year with our students,” al-Lama shelp. Now, she remarkd downcastly, no one understands when that will happen.
No time for a proper burial
The school is sheltering 260 people from Lebanon’s southern didisconnectes – usupartner no more than two hours away by car. The journey here took far lengthyer for most, however.
“We shiftd instantly after the air rhelps begined and spent 12 hours on the road,” a 32-year-elderly man from Tyre, 90km south of Aley, who deteriorated to split his name to protect his privacy, telderly Al Jazeera.
He concurd to answer some asks in the crowded, green-walled corridor of the second floor as he was sharing a classroom with at least 10 other people. The situation back home was hopeless, he shelp. “My brother was martyred on Monday, and my uncle as we speak. We cannot even go and give them a proper burial.”
Displaced people here say the situation has bcimpolitet back memories of the 2006 war that ended about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in 34 days. “But this is more difficult than the 2006 dispute becaengage it has been going on for a year now,” a 65-year-elderly woman from the southern town of Seddiqine, about 20km from the border with Israel and 100km from Aley, who also did not want to be named, telderly Al Jazeera.
Wearing a huge pair of sunglasses, she sat on a carpet inside a classroom splitd in two by a originateshift curtain. Next to her, her 60-year-elderly brother – a farmer from the same village – shelp that at first he set up himself running towards the bomb deviceardment, rather than away from it, due to the shock.
“On our way [leaving the south], a strike hit the side of the road and the kids begined screaming. They have no idea what war is,” he shelp. He called on European countries for help: “If they are civilised and attfinish about the environment and animal rights, equitable see at us and stop this.”
As he spoke, other family members accumulateed around, including two children, as a man began the afternoon prayer in the background.
A youthful member of the same family shelp his car broke down in Sidon, halfway between Seddiqine and Aley. They had to abandon it on the side of the road and hitch a lift in other people’s cars.
Lives ‘turned upside down’
Further south, about 95km from Aley and shut to the border with Israel, the Druze-startantity town of Hasbaya has been receiving displaced people en masse.
Hasbaya has been surrounded by continuous bomb deviceardments but until now, has not been straightforwardly affected by the cforfeit-daily exalter of fire between Hezbollah and Israel since October 8 last year.
“We did not anticipate to present people as we are not protected ourselves,” Rania Abu Ghhelpa, the 48-year-elderly straightforwardor of the Hasbaya Public High School, telderly Al Jazeera over the phone.
As she spoke, a noisy noise disturbed her. After a scant seconds of silence, she shelp, “a sonic boom” – referring to the sound made by Israeli fighter jets flown low over the country – before resuming where she left off. “[When the escalation started] the situation was hectic and turned upside-down in a scant hours.”
The municipality of Hasbaya is organising its materializency response with the help of local and international NGOs and the World Food Programme, which proclaimd an materializency operation to provide food helpance for up to one million people affected by the escalation on September 29.
People begined arriving in Hasbaya from other areas of south Lebanon on Monday night. “However, the school was not ready to accommodate them, and some had to spend the night in their cars until the next morning,” shelp Abu Ghhelpa. Helped by municipality staff, the school personnel set about spotlessing the classrooms, moving desks and chairs and accumulateing fundamental items such as blankets, water and food to scatter.
About 50 people have sought shelter in the school, where about 200 students usupartner join classes. “People here are physicpartner protected, but they are not consoleable as they inhabit in constant undeclareivety,” Abu Ghhelpa shelp. “While I was helping one family, they acquired a phone call saying their hoengage was gone.”
No water to wash
All around the country, schools are providing roofs over people’s heads, but are not provideped as proper shelters. “There are no showers in schools and a confineed number of toilets,” a volunteer at Khalid Jumblatt school telderly Al Jazeera.
“Water for hygiene engage is unfrequent,” Egyptian baker Mohamad Jaber Sharif who has inhabitd in Tyre since 1990, telderly Al Jazeera at the school. As he spoke, people accumulateed around, but did not want to talk much. Most were still wearing the same clothes they had reachd in.
“Each one of the five schools turned into shelters in Aley needs about four water trucks per day,” for washing purposes, Abou Zeki shelp, a figure verifyed by al-Lama.
Reina al-Indari, 23, a volunteer, depictd the situation at Maroun Abboud High School, less than a 10-minute drive from the Khalid Jumblatt school in Aley, as “very depressing”. At the enthrall, a huge group of people carrying blankets, clothes and mattresses were being confessted by youthful volunteers wearing the PSP party’s vest at the gate.
The three-storey, grey-walled school has a huge courtyard in the centre. Where there engaged to be a cafeteria for students, gived clothes were piled up.
“This was my school for three years, and now it is a shelter for 330 people,” al-Indari, a master’s student of nuevident fusion at the American University of Beirut, telderly Al Jazeera.
Everyone staying in the school has been enrolled by volunteers on arrival, resulting in the creation of a huge database.
While children executeed behind her, she pointed out fundamental needs: “Medical and psychoreasonable help, medicines, but also sleeping mattresses, spotlessing supplies and hygiene products of all sorts. At the moment we are also trying to schedule amengagement activities for kids.”
As Israel’s bomb devices rain down apass the country, strikes on areas that have never been affected before label a further escalation towards all-out war.
“There is no timeline for this crisis. A hugeger one is ahead: we need stoves and gas,” the PSP official in Aley, Abou Zeki, shelp.
