Published on 6/20/2026
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Last update: 16:33 (Mecca time)
Displaced persons’ shelter centers in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, are witnessing harsh living and psychological conditions due to the dissipation of hopes of returning to their villages, following the escalation of intense Israeli raids on southern towns, forcing families who tried to return to flee again towards temporary asylum centres.
Al Jazeera Mubasher monitored from inside the Hotel Technical Institute in the Bir Hassan area corridors crowded with bags and luggage that their owners had packed in the hope of returning, before the recent wave of escalation dissipated them.
We wanted to leave yesterday and we packed our things, but I asked my children to be patient because the situation is not reassuring. A person dies once, but here we die a hundred times, and that is enough. Our psyches are tired.
A life of forced mobility
The suffering was not limited to one group alone, as the lives of the displaced turned into a continuous forced movement between the capital and the south according to the changing bombing maps.
A displaced person from the town of Kafr Malki described the complex field reality and the difficulty of settling in light of the targeting of homes surrounding the shelter centers, saying: “I was initially displaced from Haret Hreik to the south, then the homes surrounding us were bombed, so we returned to Beirut.”
He added, “We have been living a life of forced displacement for more than a month, and each day is more difficult than the one before. I am now looking for a new shelter center because my mother and sister are injured and unable to move, and the situation is very difficult in light of the sounds of night explosions that terrify children and adults.”
Hanging baggage
The displaced directly linked packing their belongings to the fate of the political talks and international understandings related to the ceasefire, which were expected to be completed in Switzerland, but their postponement opened the door to a new Israeli field escalation that thwarted plans for return.
A displaced Lebanese woman described the scene, saying: “Our belongings are ready. We wanted to leave, on the basis that the signing would take place in Switzerland, but the signing was postponed and Israel continues to escalate.”
She continues in a sad tone: “The reality has come completely different from our aspirations, even though everyone longs to see his land, his home, and his loved ones after the war separated us.”
In the same context, another displaced person from the town of Kafr Malki confirmed that they had prepared their luggage and moved it to the cars, awaiting official directions to move.
He added, “We do not know yet what happened to our homes there as a result of the destruction, but if the situation stabilizes, the shooting stops, and the Israelis withdraw from the south, people will return immediately, and we will return even if we are forced to live in the street.”
