Lebanon’s displaced brace for winter as ceasefire hopes fade

As the weather gets colder, hundreds of families have nowhere to go, no help coming, and no hope of peace.

Beirut, Lebanon – Fady Nasreldeen, his wife and daughter are still sleeping rough by the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, among the last holdouts after the police evicted hundreds of people from the seaside on October 31.

The people were displaced, having pitched their tents there after fleeing the Israeli bombing of their homes in the district of Dahiyeh in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“There were about 400 to 450 people that came to the seaside,” said Nasreldeen, adding that his family had not be able to find spots in the sparse government shelters that are available in the country.

The first major exodus from Dahiyeh, which is controlled by the Lebanese group Hezbollah, was when Israeli forces dropped 80 bombs on residential buildings on September 28, killing Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and an unknown number of civilians.

Later that night, Israel issued several evacuation orders on social media, terrifying thousands of civilians into leaving their homes and seeking refuge across Beirut.