How a small Lebanese town became a haven from Israel’s war

Bar Elias, Lebanon – When Israel began carpet-bombing Lebanon successful precocious September, Shifa struggled to console her 3 young children.

Her eldest, 12-year-old Raneem, was truthful frightened she couldn’t devour oregon sleep. She sobbed passim the nighttime arsenic Israeli warplanes and drones thundered and buzzed implicit their home, Shifa said, huddled successful her achromatic abaya.

Sitting connected a integrative chair, she spoke to Al Jazeera with Raneem adjacent to her, portion her 2 different children played down them.

Leaning forward, Shifa recounted that, connected September 25, Israel bombed the gathering crossed from their location successful Ali el-Nahri, a colony successful Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, astir 35km (25 miles) from the capital, Beirut.

The blast shattered the solid successful Shifa’s flat and blew the doors disconnected their hinges.

Her household survived, but her neighbours and relatives weren’t arsenic lucky.

“We knew the martyrs: We mislaid my uncle and his family, our neighbours and the children of my siblings,” Shifa, 40, told Al Jazeera.

“We each wanted to cheque [if anyone we knew survived] from our neighbours and relatives, but [my husband] and I decided to instrumentality the children and fly close away,” she told Al Jazeera.

A signifier of generosity

Shifa, her hubby Bilal, and their 3 children arrived astatine Bar Elias “by coincidence” aft passing done respective villages.

According to Shifa, they simply followed hundreds of displaced radical who were fleeing successful the absorption of the Bekaa Valley’s largest Sunni Muslim town.

There, they recovered shelters opening and inhabitants donating idiosyncratic belongings to newcomers.

The generosity wasn’t surprising, Bar Elias has a past of welcoming refugees.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 31,000 to 45,000 Syrian refugees person settled successful Bar Elias aft fleeing the civilian warfare successful their country, which erupted successful 2011 aft the Syrian authorities repressed a fashionable uprising.

In contrast, the town’s Lebanese colonisation is betwixt 60,000 to 70,000.

Now, thousands of radical from Lebanon’s Shia heartlands – regions wherever the Hezbollah radical draws astir of its enactment – person recovered information and enactment successful Bar Elias.

Despite a ceasefire that came into effect connected Wednesday morning, tens – adjacent hundreds – of thousands of civilians whitethorn not beryllium capable to instrumentality location owed to the deliberate demolition of their villages and mode of life.

This means Bar Elias whitethorn beryllium a caller location for months – oregon years – until the displaced tin instrumentality to their lands and rebuild their lives.

Bilal Mohamed Araji, headmaster of al-Amin Elementary School, says it is his motivation work to unfastened the school’s doors to those fleeing Israel’s penetration [Philippe Pernot/Al Jazeera]

‘Moral obligation’

Shifa’s household settled successful the al-Amin backstage schoolhouse which was converted into a structure soon aft Israel escalated its warfare connected Lebanon.

“Helping radical is our ethical, humanitarian and spiritual duty,” caput teacher Bilal Mohamad Araji told Al Jazeera successful his office.

Bar Elias, helium said, is hosting astir 5,850 recently displaced people, a fig helium got from the section municipality. Of this number, astir 190 are sheltering astatine his school.

Shifa and her household accidental they are comfy present and treated well.

*Ali, a abbreviated bald antheral with grey stubble, is besides sheltering successful al-Amin and speaks highly astir however welcoming radical successful Bar Elias and astatine the al-Amin schoolhouse are.

The 65-year-old archetypal fled with his woman from the confederate governorate of Nabatieh successful September.

He told Al Jazeera helium utilized to person a large location and a dependable occupation arsenic a car salesman.

But erstwhile the warfare escalated, helium sought refuge with his aunt, who lived successful a adjacent village. He, his woman and his aunt’s household each fled again 3 days later.

“I heard [from neighbours] that 2 oregon 3 days aft we fled, my aunt’s location was bombed,” helium said.

The extended household archetypal headed to Chtoura, a transport hub successful the Bekaa Valley, hoping to find help. There, Ali heard Bar Elias was accepting displaced families.

Other villages were little welcoming retired of fearfulness of being attacked by Israel for “hosting a Hezbollah operative”, a justification Israel has utilized aft bombing homes each implicit Lebanon.

Araji doesn’t recognize the panic. “The information is everywhere, not conscionable successful Bar Elias. [Israel] is our enemy. Who knows [where] they volition invade oregon deed next? Nobody knows,” helium told Al Jazeera.

Tension and celebration

While Bar Elias has generously opened its arms to those successful need, it does not person the resources to thin to everyone indefinitely.

The deficiency of enactment from the authorities – which is reeling from an acute economical situation – and assistance groups leads to petty disputes betwixt displaced families, according to Zeinab Dirani, a section assistance idiosyncratic with Female, a grassroots feminist organisation successful Lebanon

She added that immoderate displaced families are much socially insulated than others, starring to friction and fights.

“Those who utilized to unrecorded successful the southbound [may be] antithetic from those [who came] from the north. There are differences successful the mode they whitethorn grip household issues … and immoderate don’t let their children to conscionable and spot caller people,” explained Dirani.

Zeinab Dirani visits al-Amin schoolhouse to cheque connected the displaced families. She lives adjacent that successful a colony was heavy deed during Israel’s warfare connected Lebanon [Philippe Pernot/Al Jazeera]

Many displaced families are present celebrating quality of a ceasefire and the imaginable extremity to the warfare connected their country, said Araji.

He told Al Jazeera that a fewer families person already near his schoolhouse to instrumentality to their villages and helium expects much to permission successful the coming days.

“Thank God, radical present are truthful blessed close now,” helium said.

“Everyone volition present beryllium capable to instrumentality to their homes, God willing.”

Ali’s sanction was changed owed to a petition for anonymity