Dahiyeh families displaced by war now trapped by identity

Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon – Fatima Kandeel, 43, and her 2 sons moved into a caller rented flat successful the confederate suburbs of Beirut successful March.

They had been staying with her sister Aida adjacent for 4 months aft a ceasefire betwixt Israel and Lebanon had stopped the worst, but not all, of Israel’s attacks connected Lebanon, and it felt bully to person their ain place.

In their hardly furnished surviving country successful Laylake, Dahiyeh, with lone 2 armchairs and a shisha tube betwixt them, the walls marque wide wherever the household stands.

A framed photograph of slain Hezbollah person Hassan Nasrallah hangs beside a martyr’s representation of Fatima’s 21-year-old nephew, a Hezbollah combatant killed successful an Israeli aerial onslaught successful Jnoub successful October.

In the rubble, scraps of home

When the warfare successful Gaza began connected October 7, 2023, Hezbollah declared its enactment for Palestine and escalated tensions on the Israel-Lebanon borderline for astir a twelvemonth until Israel invaded and launched full-scale war.

The suburbs of Dahiyeh person been repeatedly targeted successful Israeli strikes arsenic it is wide recognised arsenic a Hezbollah stronghold.

The family’s erstwhile location successful Dahiyeh’s Hay el-Selom, a 10-minute locomotion from Laylake, was destroyed by an Israeli aerial onslaught successful October.

Yet Fatima was lukewarm and hopeful successful aboriginal June, her hazel eyes inactive smiling from beneath her hijab portion recounting the symptom of loss, displacement and hardship.

Energetic and confident, she spoke expressively, utilizing her hands arsenic if she were connected stage.

Like galore Lebanese hosts, she offered drinks and an invitation for luncheon portion chatting astir what it was similar to consciousness nether onslaught successful Dahiyeh and whether that changed her narration with her neighbourhood.

After her family’s location was destroyed and they fled to Aida’s, Fatima said, her sons, 24-year-old Hassan and 20-year-old Hussein, managed to salvage 2 wardrobes and a furniture from the rubble on with different scraps from their lives there.

Proud of that tiny victory, Fatima flung unfastened the chamber doors to amusement disconnected the 2 wardrobes restored to the constituent wherever it would beryllium hard to conjecture they had been successful a bombing. The rescued furniture is utilized by 1 of her sons aft getting caller slats and a caller lease connected life.

“These are the astir important pieces of furnishings successful the house,” she said, mildly moving her manus implicit 1 of the damaged surfaces.

Fatima Kandeel stands successful beforehand of a salvaged wardrobe, holding a container of items her sons salvaged from the rubble of their location successful Hay el-Selom, which Israel destroyed. She pulls retired a stuffed artifact that her lad Hassan utilized to play with [Joao Sousa/Al Jazeera]

“They’re humanities [because they survived]. I was truthful blessed we got them back.”

Hassan and Hussein recovered much successful the rubble of their home: a stuffed artifact that Hassan utilized to play with and a fewer of the books from their mother’s library.

As she spoke, Fatima held the stuffed artifact successful her hands, smiling and looking astatine it. Hussein was softly observing his parent arsenic she shared her thoughts.

“He utilized to slumber with it beside him each night,” Fatima recalled. “I couldn’t prevention overmuch from their puerility aft my divorce, but I kept this, and present it survived the warfare too.”

In her bedroom, a tiny array holds a stack of books astir history, religion and civilization – a fragment of what she erstwhile owned.

Scars, disposable and invisible

From the surviving country balcony, the scars of warfare are visible. The apical floors of a neighbouring gathering person been destroyed, the little floors inactive lasting – a regular reminder of what was lost.

Yet Fatima holds Dahiyeh beloved and is determined to stay.

“I emotion the radical here,” she said. “Everyone is kind. … Dahiyeh is home.”

Hussein agreed that helium feels astir astatine location successful Dahiyeh with its beardown consciousness of assemblage and friends and neighbours each around.

During the war, helium struggled emotionally, perpetually stressed and getting into fights. He has seen 2 therapists but hasn’t felt overmuch improvement.

Unlike his mother, Hussein is unfastened to the thought of leaving Dahiyeh, but helium pointed retired practicalities – rents and the wide outgo of surviving extracurricular Dahiyeh are overmuch higher if they could find a spot to rent.

And, helium said, they could look sectarian favoritism if they relocate.

The household had to permission Dahiyeh concisely during Israel’s warfare connected Lebanon and sought structure successful the adjacent coastal Beirut suburb of Jnah. Fatima inactive carries a achy representation from that time.

A Jnah market store proprietor snidely remarked: “Look astatine those trashy Shia people,” arsenic helium looked astatine recently arrived families dressed successful the slippers and pyjamas they fled in.

The remark near a scar, and she refuses to permission Dahiyeh again.

“If warfare comes again, what bash you thatch the adjacent generation?” she asked. “That it’s OK to springiness up your home? Or that you basal your ground?”

A thoroughfare successful Hay El Selom is decorated with posters of Hezbollah martyrs, including precocious person Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Fatima and her sons lived determination until their location was destroyed by Israel [João Sousa/Al Jazeera]

‘If it were conscionable me, I’d stay’

While Fatima has chosen to enactment successful Dahiyeh, her 55-year-old sister, Iman, wants to leave.

Iman lives with her husband, Ali, a plastering foreman, and their 4 children: Hassan, 25, a programmer; Fatima, 19, a assemblage student; and 16-year-old twins Mariam and Marwa, some successful school.

All the children inactive stock a azygous chamber successful their humble but airy and joyful home.

The surviving country was afloat of laughter arsenic Iman sat with Mariam and Hassan, passing astir cocoa and foodstuff portion cousins chatted successful the background.

There was teasing arsenic they shared memories of fear, displacement and resilience.

Dahiyeh has ne'er been wholly safe. Its past has been shaped by the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War and Israeli assaults, including the devastating 2006 war.

It’s a cycle, Iman said – different war, different question of fearfulness and displacement. During Israel’s astir caller warfare connected Lebanon, the household fled aggregate times.

They archetypal went to Kayfoun colony successful the Mount Lebanon governorate successful precocious September, but tensions determination were high, and a section antheral dispersed rumours of imminent Israeli strikes, trying to scare displaced families away.

They near Kayfoun aft a week and fled to Tripoli successful the north, wherever beingness was quieter and the beingness of adjacent relatives offered immoderate comfort, but mistrust lingered.

Iman was often judged by her hijab, which marked her arsenic “resistance-aligned” to radical who blamed Hezbollah for Israel’s attacks connected Lebanon.

“We each became introverts,” Hassan recalled. “We stayed location astir of the time, but we had relatives adjacent and met immoderate bully friends. We’d beryllium together, play cards. It helped.”

In aboriginal October, they followed friends to Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, wherever they were welcomed warmly – much warmly, they said, than successful parts of Lebanon.

After the ceasefire, they returned. “There’s nary spot amended than our country,” Iman insisted, but Dahiyeh does not consciousness harmless to her immoderate much contempt her heavy ties to the neighbourhood, truthful she is searching for a caller location – anyplace that’s safer.

“If it were conscionable me, I’d stay,” she said. “But I person kids. I person to support them.”

‘They don’t rent to Shia families’

Iman’s lad Hassan recalls the archetypal clip Israel bombed adjacent their flat – connected April 1 successful breach of the November ceasefire.

“I conscionable wanted out,” helium said. “I don’t attraction wherever we go. Just determination that isn’t a target.”

Iman Kandeel successful her surviving room. From left: Her lad Hassan, the author, Iman, Iman’s girl Mariam, Iman’s nephew Hassan and Fatima’s lad Hussein, successful Hadath, Beirut, a location they are contemplating leaving [Joao Sousa/Al Jazeera]

But uncovering a caller spot to rent is acold from simple.

They considered moving to Hazmieh. It is adjacent to Dahiyeh but not portion of it, making it comparatively safer. And it would beryllium person to Iman’s sister Mariam, who lives there.

But Iman said: “In Hazmieh, astir of them don’t rent to Shia families, oregon they would treble the price.”

Despite the mounting fear, the household does not privation to permission Lebanon, and Hassan has turned down a occupation connection abroad. They’re exhausted, they said, but not acceptable to wantonness their country.

Even successful the midst of war, Hassan said, his parents did not privation to permission Dahiyeh. He had to enactment connected convincing them to spell archetypal to Kayfoun, past yet Iraq.

It was the aforesaid aft the ceasefire with agelong discussions astir whether to leave, and it was his mother’s fearfulness for her children that made her yet agree.

But much than a period aft they spoke to Al Jazeera successful aboriginal June, they’re inactive searching for a spot that volition instrumentality them and that they tin afford.