Fearing all-out war, thousands flee southern Lebanon - Action News
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Fearing all-out war, thousands flee southern Lebanon

Across Lebanon, people are bracing for a war the troubled country cannot afford, and thousands from the south are fleeing north to escape the fighting.

'They came here without anything in their pockets,' says local official

Three people sit and stand amid some chairs and a mattress in a classroom that has been repurposed as a refugee shelter.
Zahira Omar Swaid, 40, who said she escaped from the south Lebanese village of Dahaira near the Israeli border after fighting broke out, sits with her family at a school where refugees have taken shelter in Tyre. The International Organization for Migration said almost 20,000 people have fled southern Lebanon since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,400 people and taking more than 200 hostages. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Along the Lebanese-Israeli border, violence between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah militants has been steadily intensifying over the past two weeks amid fears that Lebanon will become engulfed in a broader conflict as Israel wars with Hamas.

Several countries, including the United States and Canada have urged their citizens to leave immediately.

Across the troubled country, people are bracing for a war Lebanon cannot afford, and thousands from the south are fleeing north to escape the skirmishes near the border.

In the city of Tyre, around 15 kilometres from the Israeli border, explosions could be heard in the distance on Friday. At the Tyre Technical School, refugees were being cared for by the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) and local officials. Standing by to assist was Hassan Mortada, head of the Union of Tyre Municipalities.

"They are mostly farmers, so they came here without anything in their pockets," he said. "We try our best to provide their basic needs, such as food, beds and covers as the weather is getting colder."

WATCH | Families leave southern Lebanon fearing widening war:

Lebanese families near Israeli border displaced amid conflict

11 months ago
Duration 1:39
Some families who live near the Lebanon-Israel border have been forced to leave their homes after their villages were caught up in cross-border attacks in the region. Local authorities were scrambling to help locate shelters and supplies for those displaced.

Refugees from south describe destroyed villages, casualties

Almost 20,000 people have fled southern Lebanon since Oct. 7 when Hamas attacked Israel and fightingsubsequently broke out between the IDF and Hezbollah according to the IOM.

Among the displaced is Abdullahal-Grayeb, a Lebanese man from the border village of Zahajra, located less than a kilometre from the Israeli border. Grayeb left the village with many other families after Israeli shelling damaged his house and two vehicles.

Grayebsaysthat almost all of his village has been destroyed in the conflict. He arrived at the school on Thursday.

A man in a beige golf shirt and white baseball cap looks off camera, frowning.
Abdullah al-Grayeb and his family fled north from their home in the border village of Zahajra, near the Israeli border, to escape the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel. (Fin DePencier)

Grayeb says the IDF deployed white phosphorus in his village, resulting in property damage and civilian casualties.

"Some of the houses turned to ashes, turned completely into ashes, nothing else at all!" he said.

"Some people experienced shortness of breath because of the phosphorus bombs that were used. A woman suffocated while trying to help her husband who was injured by the bomb in his leg."

CBC News has not independently verified those details, but Human Rights Watch has recently accused the Israeli military of using white phosphorus inside Gaza and Lebanon.

Israel has called the accusation "unequivocally false."

The munition has a complicated standing in international law. Because it's used primarily for illumination and as an obscurant, it doesn't fit the UN's definition of an incendiary or chemical weapon. Its incendiary properties are considered "incidental" to its primary use, as are its toxic properties.

A large group of demonstrators, some masked, raise flags and their fists during a protest on a city street.
The distinct yellow-and-green flag of Hezbollah is waved during a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza, in Beirut on Friday. (Amr Alfiky/Reuters)

Another man from the neighbouring village of Yarinewho did not give his name had also taken refuge at the Tyre Technical School. He said that Zahajra had been hit especially hard and that he was worried about the conflict spreading.

But Lebanese people have gotten used to disaster, he said.

"Lebanon is already destroyed There is nothing left to be scared about. Why should we be sad to lose? Nothing is left to be lost," he said.

Crisis upon crisis

Lebanon's ongoing financial and governance crises have allowed Hezbollah to become the dominant military and political power. The Iran-backed militant group is both a political party that operates as part of the duly elected governmentand a rogue actor with its own standing army and governance system.

Like its smaller ally Hamas, Hezbollah is considered a terrorist group by Canada's government.

Lebanon's divided parliament hasn't been able to elect a president since October 2022, leaving the country with a bankrupt, caretaker government and therefore enormously unprepared to deal with a war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Their last war, in 2006, killed more than 1,600 Lebanese civilians in just over a month.

Three large flares, trailing smoke, fall at night.
Flares, fired from the Israeli side, burn in the sky as seen from Ramyah near the Lebanese-Israeli border, in southern Lebanon, on Oct. 11. (Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters)

Since then, in 2019, Lebanon's banking system collapsed and it spiralled into hyper-inflation. The World Bank has said its financial crisis may be one of the worst three in the last 150 years.

Then, in 2020, a devastating explosion in the port of Beirut destroyed a large part of the capital; a catastrophe for a country heavily reliant on imports, made worse by lockdowns and supply chain issues stemming from COVID-19.

Lebanon also already had a significant population of people displaced by war even before this current crisis. According to the UN, the country hosts almost half a million Palestinian refugees, many of whom were born in Lebanon after their parents fled the Israeli-Arab wars of 1948 and 1967 and still live in refugee camps.

There are also over 1.5 million refugees of other nationalities, mostly Syrians, inside the country, according to the UN.

WATCH | Canada prepares to evacuate citizens from Lebanon:

Canada preparing evacuation plan for its citizens in Lebanon

11 months ago
Duration 2:00
With fears that war will soon cross into Lebanon, Canadians there are being urged to leave now, while the military prepares for evacuation flights.

Common enemy

While the Lebanese people are divided in their support between Hezbollah, the central government and other sectarian groups, Israel remains a common enemy for many.

"While many don't approve of [Hezbolllah] dragging Lebanon into another conflict, they believe in the necessity for internal unity as the country braces for an Israeli attack, leading to internal displacement, and potentially more loss of life on the Lebanese side," said Mohanad Hage Ali, senior fellow at the Carnegie Middle East Centre, a Beirut-based think-tank.

One Lebanese Armenian man said he would defend Lebanon if push came to shove.

Zamzam, 33, who said she escaped from the south Lebanese village of Beit Lif near the Israeli border sits  at a school where she  takes refuge in Tyre, Lebanon October 20, 2023.
Zamzam, 33, who said she escaped from the south Lebanese village of Beit Lif near the Israeli border sits at a school in Tyre where she has taken refuge. (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

"It's Hezbollah that would be doing the fighting, not the Lebanese military, but if we all have to fight, for sure I would," said Avo Boiynerian. "I don't have any training, I'd be starting from scratch. But if Lebanon is going to collapse, for sure I would help."

However, not everyone in Lebanon considers the fight for southern Lebanon as their own.

"I don't care what is happening in the south of Lebanon," said Hagop Havartyan, a Lebanese Armenian man who owns a variety store in Beirut and advocates for the partition of Christian and non-Christian society in Lebanon."I don't go there, and I don't plan on going there."

Three tanks, their guns angled up, sit amid some mounds of earth and scrub vegetation.
Israeli artillery units are seen in position near the border with Lebanon in northern Israel, on Thursday. (Lisi Niesner/Reuters)

'Alot of bombing and flying sounds'

Eighty-three kilometres north of Tyre, other people from southern Lebanon have found living arrangements with family members in Beirut.

Mariam Fawaz and her family are from Chaaitiyeh, a farming community in the Tyre municipality. Her husband and three children are now staying at her brother-in-law's house.

"Honestly, we couldn't sleep," said Fawaz, holding two children in her arms. "There was a lot of bombing and flying sounds. That's why we came here. We thought it's safer and calmer for the children. I have some relatives that are still in the village. But they don't have anybody here to stay with."

A seated woman holds two young girls.
Mariam Fawaz and her family relocated to Beirut from a farming community in the south to escape the fighting. (Fin DePencier)

Hussein Fawaz, her brother-in-law, opened his home to Mariam's family. But for Hussein, supporting his own family has been hard enough.

"It's been a week now for them at my house. There are five people in the other room right now," he said, sitting next to his disabled daughter in a wheelchair that is too small for her.

Hussein has been unemployed since he lost his shoe store due to complications brought on by Lebanon's economic crisis. He gets by with occasional donations from a family member in Sweden.

"It's been a while since I'm not working. Mostly, I stay beside my daughter," he said.

WATCH | How clashes along Israel-Lebanon border could set off a wider war:

Why clashes on Israels border with Lebanon could escalate the war

11 months ago
Duration 6:37
As Israel battles Hamas and prepares for ground invasion of Gaza, many are watching clashes with Hezbollah in Lebanon to the north. CBCs Susan Ormiston breaks down whats happening on Israels border with Lebanon and its role in widening the war.

With files from CBC News

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