Refugees in Lebanon are starting to return home, but some have nowhere to go Israel attacks Lebanon News

Beirut, Lebanon – There are only a few blue tents left near Beirut’s seafront, a far cry from the hundreds that have sheltered Lebanon’s refugees in recent months.

The agreement on the cessation of hostilities between the United States and Iran – which includes the end of Israel’s war on Lebanon – has encouraged thousands of Lebanese to start returning to their homes in areas, especially in the south of the country, that have experienced violence.

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As the afternoon sun beat down on a parking lot where several tents were still standing, a woman from Nabi Chit, a village in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, walked to a neighbor’s tent to fill a water bottle.

A war in March between the Israeli army and locals killed more than 40 people in Nabi Chit. The woman, who asked that her name be withheld, and her daughter fled their home to the southern suburbs of Beirut, known as Dahiyeh. Then they moved to the seafront in Beirut, facing the luxury shopping area, about a month ago.

He also said that many people have left the camp in the past few days. Those who stayed – like him – mostly have nowhere to go. His house was destroyed and he didn’t want to be a burden to others by staying in their homes.

Left behind

Israel’s second military escalation in Lebanon in less than two years began on March 2, just hours after Hezbollah fired six rockets into Israel. Hezbollah was responding to months of unanswered Israeli attacks and more than 10,000 violations of the 2024 deadline, as well as the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just two days earlier.

Since March 2, Israel has killed at least 4,247 people and injured more than 12,000. It has also entered Lebanon, destroying villages and displacing more than 1.2 million people, several times.

People were forced to seek shelter wherever they could, including schools that the Lebanese government had turned into shelters and the Beirut Sports City Stadium, south of Beirut.

But since the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States on June 17 – and framework agreement signed by Israel and Lebanon on Friday – many refugee camps have disappeared as people try to return home, hoping that the worst violence will stop.

A few, however, remain.

Ali Saleh, 55, is from Jwaya in southern Lebanon. He escaped on March 2 and eventually found his way to the Beirut Sports City Stadium.

Ali told Al Jazeera that many refugees left the square to try to return home. But he was forced to stay in Beirut because his house was destroyed.

Returning to the Beirut River, Rami Mustafa explained that he has been renting a house in Choueifat, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. But he left when the war broke out and lost his money, which forced him to come to the river with his wife and three children.

Rami said he used to be a security guard and a car mechanic. Finding similar jobs won’t be easy – the war closed many businesses and forced him to live in a tent by the water’s edge until he could earn enough money to leave.

“I have to work for a month or more (to save enough money) before I can come back home,” Rami said.

Close to home

Some have decided to leave the areas they were displaced from, even though they cannot return to their towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

Hussein, a man from the southern town of Qlaileh, was transferred to a school in Tire because of the war. He went to check on his house when the war was quiet in April and found that it had been destroyed. He told Al Jazeera that he will go to his village to save what he can.

Israel’s attacks in the past week have been less than ever. But he didn’t give up. On Thursday, the National News Agency in Lebanon reported the killing of three people by an Israeli plane on a car in the Nabatieh area. In the town of Ain Arab, part of the Marjayoun region, the Israeli army burned down a house, on Friday, two people are said to have been killed in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, while another person was killed in the same area in an Israeli attack on Saturday.

Some southerners whose homes were destroyed told Al Jazeera that they plan to return to their homes and build tents there, while others say they will find rented houses.

But Israel continues to occupy many villages in the military zone it established behind the so-called “Yellow Line”, which runs about 10 kilometers into Lebanon. The villagers are unable to return, although their houses are still standing.

Returning or continuing to move

While some villagers are returning home, the issue of rebuilding continues in Lebanon. The Lebanese government says returning to border villages and rebuilding are key issues in direct talks with Israel – the latest talks this week. There are no details on when the agreement signed by Israel and Lebanon will allow reconstruction to begin.

After the 2024 ceasefire, thousands of people returned to their homes and spent their savings on rebuilding or repairing them. Many of them have had their houses damaged or destroyed again.

Lebanon’s Finance Minister, Yassine Jaber, said that despite the ongoing review, the country had “at least” $3-4bn in losses since March. This is in addition to the estimated $7bn cost of Israel’s war in Lebanon between October 2023 and November 2024.

Back near the sea in Beirut, Nabi Chit’s mother played with an empty water bottle. A few minutes earlier, some of the neighboring tents said that someone had come to tell the refugees that they would be leaving the area soon.

Some who were camping on the beach said they did not want to leave their tents.

When asked why they would not leave, some said they did not want to go to a crowded place where their children would sleep in rooms with people they did not know.

The woman said many people refused to go. But he asked about the situation at Sports City Stadium and another camp in Quarantine Districtin the eastern part of Beirut.

“We are not getting help here,” he said. For a while, people came ashore to distribute food and water, but much of this aid has dried up as the war continues. Many of the refugees complained that there was no place to use the bathroom.

“It would be better to go to a place with a bathroom,” said the woman.