Thousands flee Israel airstrikes on Lebanon with what little they can: ‘We’re afraid for a big war’

‘We smelt the bombs. Then we started to see traffic jams. My children panicked and cried, so we decided to leave’

Lebanese citizens who have fled from the southern villages sit in a pickup in Beirut (AP)

Thousands have poured into the city of Aley, about 12 miles from Beirut, after fleeing southern Lebanon where Israel has focused its airstrikes against Hezbollah.

Schools and other buildings have been turned into shelters. “Some residents even donated their apartments,” said Badr Zeidan, the district governor coordinating the efforts.

The numbers escaping the bombardment keep rising, he said, but are likely to have reached 10,000. “We register them and then distribute them to schools or empty houses.”

Nasreen and her family arrived in Aley very early in the morning, having barely slept. “It took us 13 hours to get from Qana to Ghaziyeh, which usually takes less than one hour," she told The Independent. “After that, it still took us 7 hours to get to Aley. We arrived at 3am.”

At first, she wanted to stay in her family home, dismissing reports of an escalation as “the same as always”.

“But then they started heavily shelling the hills around us, and the bombardments came closer and closer. We smelt the bombs. Then we started to see traffic jams. My children panicked and cried, so we decided to leave.”

The journey to Beirut was exhausting. “People were panicking, we had no food or water, and we saw missiles hit villages and buildings around us when we were stuck in the traffic jam. Ambulances could not pass, it was unbearable,” she said.

The strikes from Israel – which saw Hezbollah responding with dozens of rockets – continued into Tuesday, with the death toll reaching at least 558 dead and more than 1,800 injured across the two days, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, a separate authority to Hezbollah. That figure included 50 children and 94 women.

The ministry added that the “vast majority” of those who were killed were unarmed civilians in their homes. Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, also confirmed that two UN employees had been killed in Monday’s strikes.

Vehicles wait in traffic in the town of Damour, south of the capital Beirut (AFP/Getty)

At least another six people were killed in another Israeli airstrike on Beirut, Lebanon’s health ministry said – with more than a dozen injured. The Israeli military said it had killed Ibrahim Qubaisi, who it claimed was the commander of Hezbollah’s missiles and rocket force.

Israel has called on civilians to evacuate areas close to Hezbollah sites storing weapons, but residents may not know they are near. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to pound Hezbollah targets and urged Lebanese citizens to escape the grip of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

“Anyone who has a missile in their living room and a rocket in their garage will not have a home," Mr Netanyahu said at an army base at an undisclosed location after the military said it had found ammunition in people’s homes.

“Our war is not with you, our war is with Hezbollah. Nasrallah is leading you to the brink of the abyss ... Rid yourself from Nasrallah’s grip, for your own good.”

Events have pushed an already simmering region to the brink of full-scale war, with concerns the attack might be a precursor to an Israeli ground incursion into Lebanon. The threat of an all-out war has spiked in recent weeks, after nearly a year of cross-border fire sparked by the Israeli war against another group backed by Iran, Hamas, in Gaza.

Hezbollah has said it won’t stop firing until there is a ceasefire in Gaza. The war there was triggered by a Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October that killed around 1,200 people – with another 251 being taken hostage. Israel’s ensuing aerial and ground assault on Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and displaced more than 90 per cent of the population.

The Israeli strike on Tuesday was conducted in an often-busy suburb of Beirut (AFP/Getty)

“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest; even if the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible,” US president Joe Biden told the UN General Assembly in New York. To applause, Mr Biden also called on Israel and Hamas to finalise the terms of a ceasefire and hostage release deal put forward by Washington, Qatar and Egypt.

In Aley, one official helping coordinate the Lebanon relief effort, Laura Mukhtar abu Hassan, said families have been arriving with up to 50 people. “People are in a very bad shape. They need food, diapers and milk for children and don’t have the medicines they need,” she said while showing a long list of urgently needed medication.

Jadi Hassan Abdallah fled from Maarakeh, about 50 miles south of Beirut, and is also waiting to get shelter with his family. “The friend of my son got killed in a village close to us yesterday. I see the fear in my son’s eyes.” He thinks that this is possibly the start of a month-long war.

Mr Abdallah did not pack anything before he fled with his family and that of his brother. “All I have are these clothes,” he said, wearing just a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops. “They warned people close to [Hezbollah] sites to evacuate but we have nothing close by, so we thought we could stay. Then we saw missiles everywhere close to our home.”

He is worried about where they have to spend the coming weeks and how to earn money. “I sell second-hand clothes, and if I don’t work, I don’t have an income,” he said.

Mr Abdallah remembered the 2006 war, when Israel invaded the south of Lebanon in a month-long, large-scale offensive. “Back then, I was in the south as well and fled to Syria. We were very well received there,” Mr Abdallah said. “But now the situation is much more severe. There are more missiles and they destroy everything. They even bombed our neighbour. We know him very well and he is not with Hezbollah. All he does is farm tobacco.”

Rola Saad has just been relocated to a school in Aley with her brother’s family. “We are afraid for a big war. We hope the international community interferes and ensures concessions from both parties. A larger war will be horrible, all sides have victims, also in Israel. All we want is just to go back home and live our lives.”