Displaced in Lebanon: 'Lives turned upside down'

Over 1.1 million Lebanese have fled their homes due to fighting in the south of the country and Israeli bombing of Beirut's suburbs. DW met a family struggling to preserve a sense of normality in tough conditions. ConflictsLebanonDisplaced in Lebanon: 'Lives turned upside down'Diana Hodali04/04/2026April 4, 2026Over 1.1 million Lebanese have fled their homes due to fighting in the south of the country and Israeli bombing of Beirut's suburbs. DW met a family struggling to preserve a sense of normality in tough conditions.https://p.dw.com/p/5BfK5Displaced locals have been putting up makeshift tents all over the cityImage: Emilio Morenatti/AP Photo/picture allianceAdvertisementFatme A. is trying to maintain some semblance of a normal life in between the improvised tent shelters, stacked mattresses and all the other families sheltered close by. She is staying in the Azarieh buildings, in the middle of Beirut's commercial center — the buildings have become a shelter for hundreds of displaced Lebanese. Around 250 families are living here in makeshift tents. There's water, a communal kitchen and goods distributed by aid organizations. But there's not much space, let alone peace or privacy. Fatme spends most of her time inside her tent. She isn't even that keen to go to the bathroom here. "You have to queue and everybody looks at you," she confides. "I get embarrassed." That's why she sits inside her cloth shelter, amid bags, blankets and the small number of personal belongings she was able to carry with her when she was forced to flee home. She lives here together with her husband, their 7-year-old daughter and her mother, sharing what little space they have. Her husband, a carpenter, has been helping others in the building. He repairs, builds and organizes. "Because he is able to help, we managed to get two tents," Fatme explains. During the day she tries to carry on as usual. But the nights are more difficult. "The explosions are so loud," she tells DW. "A lot of people here are afraid and sleep fully dressed." Conflict expanding in Lebanon In early March, Fatme (right) and her family left their home in the Beirut suburbs under attack by IsraelImage: privat The Iran war arrived in Beirut some time ago, and lately it has moved from beyond what are recognized as conflict zones to other parts of the Lebanese capital. Israel has expanded its targeting and has also started hitting areas that are beyond what are known as neighborhoods that support the Lebanese group, Hezbollah — that includes central city areas. Sometimes the Israeli attacks come without any warning. Hezbollah has both a military and political wing, plays a major role in Lebanese society and politics and is opposed to Israel. The group, which is allied with Iran, is categorized as a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and a number of Sunni Muslim countries. Europe considers Hezbollah's armed wing a terrorist organization. At the same time that Israel is attacking from the air, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has also said a buffer zone will be set up inside southern Lebanon and that Israel will keep security control over it even when the Iran war ends. Katz has said the area to be occupied by Israeli forces would go right up to the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (around 18 miles) from the Lebanese border with Israel. Katz also said all houses in Lebanese villages near the Israeli border would be destroyed. In response, Lebanese Defense Minister Michel Menassa said Katz's remarks showed Israel's "clear intention to impose a new occupation of Lebanese territory, forcibly displace hundreds of thousands of citizens, and systematically destroy villages and towns in the south." A joint statement signed by the foreign ministers of 10 European countries, alongside the European Union's top diplomat Kaja Kallas, urged Israel to respect Lebanon's territorial integrity. 'Nowhere is safe' But for Lebanese locals impacted by the Israeli invasion, those words bring no comfort. They feel there is nowhere safe for them at the moment. "We fled [our homes] but we know that there's nowhere that's really safe. But there's nothing more we can do," Fatme explains. Only a few weeks ago, Fatme and her family were living at home in Ouzai in the south of the city. It's a dense, mixed-use neighborhood that belongs to the part of Beirut known as Dahiyeh. 'Nowhere feels safe': Beirut hit by ongoing Israeli strikesTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Dahiyeh — in Arabic, the word simply means "suburb" — is an area that is almost as big as central Beirut itself. Over the past few decades, Dahiyeh has grown thanks to migration and displacement. A lot of people have moved here simply because they couldn't afford to live in other parts of the increasingly expensive city. Others arrived thanks to war, political crises or a lack of state support elsewhere. For some outsiders and for Western observers, Dahiyeh is often only seen as a Hezbollah stronghold, a political and military space. But for the people who actually live there it is also a totally normal, often bustling area, filled with shops, resta