Thousands of southerners flee to Chouf Mountains

For a moment there was panic in the school in Aley, the main city in the predominantly Druze-controlled Chouf Mountains, 17 kilometres south-east of Beirut. Packed with some 400 displaced people from the south of Lebanon, the cause for concern was just one man and his story of intense horror. The man, who preferred not to be named, had just arrived from Srifa, a village near the southern city of Tyre. He shed a light on how the war is being fought in the south, and how civilians, homes, roads, and bridges are the main victims. According to him, Hizbullah fighters had entered the village at night and fired rockets at Israel. Immediately afterwards, he says, Israeli artillery returned fire and people went into hiding. “More than 15 buildings were completely destroyed,” says the man. “People got buried under the rubble and may be still there.” He and four others tried to help, but the planes returned and bombed again. The man then decided to take his car and follow his family, which had left the village last week and now live with some 400 others in the emptied class rooms of the Aley primary school. Though not a particularly long journey in normal times, it took him about four hours to get to Aley. “Every time I took one road, I had to return and take another because either the road or the bridge was destroyed.” People are heading to the Chouf Mountains because it’s the only route out of the south that has not been bombed. Additionally, in the past the mountains have been a place of refuge in times of war. On hearing this story, many people in the school panicked, as they had relatives in the village. The man could not tell, however, who and how many people were killed. The village mayor told Al Jazeera TV: “There are dozens dead and there is massive destruction. Emergency services are putting out the fires, but they cannot reach the houses to recover bodies.” On the numbers of people fleeing the attacks in the south, Zaher Radwa of local NGO Green Hand said: “We have nearly 400 people in this school, one of four main schools in the city that offers accommodation. There are also smaller institutions that offer help while a lot of people stay with friends or have rented apartments. We estimate there are some 20,000 to 25,000 displaced people in Aley alone and up to 150,000 in the whole of the Chouf region.” Officials estimates suggest that half a million Lebanese have been displaced countrywide by the ongoing conflict. The relief effort in Aley is organised by the municipality and the Progressive Socialist Party led by Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, who is known as one of Hizbullah’s fiercest critics. “So far, we have enough to offer,” said Radwa, “but soon we expect to face shortages of food and fuel. I mean, there are now so many more people living in this area, while the south and the Bekaa Valley are cut off. And that’s where most of Lebanon’s food comes from.” If the situation in Lebanon is not to change for the better soon, Radwa believes, the country will become dependent on foreign aid. Still the situation seems worse in the south of the country. Chadi Hamed fled with his mother and sister from Tyre on Monday, after Israeli forces bombed a Civil Defense Forces building killing some 20 people, as well as bombing a residential building in his neighbourhood killing five. “The situation in Tyre is becoming very bad,” he said. “The city is nearly cut off from the outside world. It is running out of bread and fuel, and no one is working the lands.” Hamed had to take an alternative longer route before entering the Chouf Mountains. “There is destruction everywhere,” he said, “and we were constantly followed by the sound of bomb explosions. Only after we entered the Chouf we were more relaxed.” Some of his family remained in Tyre. While his father works abroad, his two uncles and their families refused to leave. “If we die, we die here,” they said. “Not me,” said Hamed. “I don’t care about politics and I hope to leave the country for Jordan, as I have a double nationality.” Israeli attacks on Lebanon started on 12 July in response to the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah, who are demanding the release of Lebanese prisoners in Israel. The south of the country has been targeted in particular, as it is home to Hizbullah. At least 300 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon so far, while hundreds of thousands have fled from south Beirut, south Lebanon and, to a lesser extent, the Bekaa Valley. PS/SZ/ED