In a big kitchen in the Geitawi neighbourhood in Beirut, volunteers manoeuvred around each other as they chopped and washed vegetables, or managed and monitored ovens and stove tops.
At the headquarters of Nation Station – a grassroots initiative formed in the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut port explosion – about 1,200 meals a day are being prepared for displaced people from produce bought with donations.
Mehyo el Jawhary started Nation Station’s new volunteer programme just two days before and has been overwhelmed by the response – there are already more than 100 people in their WhatsApp group, he said.
They are co-ordinating with the Lebanese government to figure out which schools, now being used as shelters, have the greatest need.
“It’s still day two, we don’t know what’s happening tomorrow, so we’re taking it day by day,” said the 33-year-old.
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As Israeli air strikes rain down, mostly on Lebanon’s south and east, as many as half a million people have been displaced, according to government estimates. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on Wednesday said more than 90,500 newly displaced people had been reported with nearly 40,000 staying in 283 shelters. The use of schools as temporary housing also means education has been disrupted for up to 100,000 students, IOM said.
El Jawhary, a chef by trade, said helping those fleeing Israeli air strikes is particularly important to him because he is from the badly affected south. His parents remain there.
“They’re just very stubborn, they love the south. My mom is Palestinian, so she already had to leave her country once,” he explained.
They hope that their city, Saida, will remain safer than other areas “but really you don’t know”.
The organisers of the Beirut Marathon, which is scheduled to take place in November 2024, have also turned their energies towards collecting donations for displaced people, including sanitary products, baby care needs, sheets, toys, towels and detergent.
Volunteer Lana El-Khalil said they are aware that “Lebanon does not have a reliable social welfare system and thus the major responsibility of care falls on civil society... As Lebanese we have become very good at supporting each other”.
In shelters, she said, “conditions are very basic. Whole families are cramped into classrooms not equipped for living. We’ve had to provide mattresses, gas stoves, electricity, fix plumbing systems so toilets can be used etc. And we still have a long way to go.
“It is very hard to be living in dignity in your own home, forced to leave it, and move into a classroom and share a space with hundreds of others,” she continued. “It’s humiliating. We have some people who are so old and can’t climb stairs, they need chronic medication and care, they can’t be sleeping on tiny foam mattresses on the floor. We have special needs children, injured and handicapped adults. It’s very difficult to stomach really.”
More than 230 people are staying in a technical college in Dekwaneh, a suburb close to Beirut. A military vehicle was stationed at the entrance with soldiers inside. Staff from organisations including Caritas milled around and children played between trees at the front.
Management director Jad Naddaf said the new people arriving are very sad and many are clearly traumatised.
“It’s a war,” he repeated. He said they need a lot of help now: “Food, water, bedding, hygiene”.
It is not just Lebanese people fleeing this new assault.
The Catholic Church-run Arrupe migrant centre – located above St Joseph’s Jesuit Church in Beirut’s upscale Achrafieh area – was also sheltering more than 50 people by Wednesday afternoon.
Michael Petro, a project director for the Jesuit Refugee Service migrant project and a priest in training, said the first person showed up late on Monday, and more had been arriving ever since.
“This place is known as a community space, [so] I’m getting people calling saying ‘can I come to the church?’” said Petro.
While those staying there originally come from countries including Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Bangladesh, they also found themselves in the middle of this war, escaping places such as Saida, Tyre, Nabatieh and the south Beirut area of Dahiyeh. Many of them have been waiting for UN refugee resettlement to other countries for years, Petro said. He is worried they could be forgotten in this new response.
Children jumped on to mattresses piled on the ground, in a room now used to sleep them and their mothers. Another office has become a bedroom for the men.
Petro said they are willing to turn the church property into a long-term shelter, and are already looking into how to do that responsibly, though they are also giving people the option of being moved to another location in Hammana, which could be safer if the bombing keeps spreading.
The mood over the last few days has been “pretty joyful” because of the presence of so many children playing, and everyone’s relief at being in a safer place compared to where they were. “But ‘how are you?’ is not really a good question to ask people right now,” he said.
Rahel Teshome was among the new arrivals. The Ethiopian woman fled Dahiyeh with her husband and 10-year-old son. She said an air strike hit close to their home, causing damage to their building. She vowed to “never go back, it’s not safe”. Her concern is particularly for her son, who has been suffering from extreme anxiety, not sleeping and becoming distressed at noises.
“I left everything,” she said, looking around her.
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