The forgotten victims of Israel’s bombing who hold little hope for Trump’s talk of ending the war
Sobbing, Fatima, 82, frantically searches for a tent to sleep in after fleeing a southern suburb of Beirut, just moments before an Israeli airstrike destroyed the buildings next to hers.
Together with her husband, she had clung on in their home in Dahiyeh. The predominantly Shia neighbourhood is home to an estimated half a million people. Israel has ordered its evacuation since opening a second theatre of war against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, after joining the US in bombing Iran.
On Tuesday afternoon, Fatima says she fled in just the clothes she was wearing, as the Israeli military gave residents a final warning to leave immediately. The strikes, which followed shortly after, sent choking columns of smoke towering over the city.
“It was just me and my husband on our own. They told us to get out so we ran,” she repeats in terror, as Israeli drones whine in the skies above this makeshift displacement camp housed in a sports stadium where she is trying to find shelter.
“I am so sick and I didn’t bring my medication. We need help,” she tells the aid workers frantically.
On Monday, Donald Trump signalled the imminent end to the US and Israel’s devastating bombardment of Iran, which has killed more than 1,300 people and triggered a region-wide conflict stretching from Lebanon to Kuwait.
The escalation has in turn seen Iran choke global shipping routes and bomb countries including Qatar and the UAE, forcing the closure of international airport hubs. The UK has even sent the Royal Navy warship HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean, following a drone attack on an RAF base in Cyprus.
The Type 45 destroyer is capable of shooting down drones and ballistic missiles fired by Iran and its proxies.
And there are now fears that even once the US and Israel stop bombing Iran, Israel’s offensive on Lebanon will drag on.
Lebanon was pulled into the conflict in the Middle East last week, when the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah launched strikes against Israel to avenge the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Since then, Israeli attacks have killed at least 570 people, according to local authorities. The United Nations says it has also forced 700,000 people, like Fatima, to flee their homes, with 100,000 on the move in the last 24 hours alone.
With few places to go, many have been sleeping in makeshift camps like the one housed at this Sports Stadium, in their cars, on the streets or along Beirut’s seafront.
In Beirut’s iconic Martyrs’ Square, Mariam, 36, a mother of three who also fled Dahiyeh, says she is living in a tent after going to multiple schools that the authorities have turned into temporary shelters, only to be turned away because they were full.
“During the last war with Israel in 2024, my family building was completely destroyed and we have had no money to rebuild,” she adds, nervously watching the skies as planes roar overhead.
