{"id":38447,"date":"2026-03-27T10:15:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/38447\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T10:15:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:15:08","slug":"trapped-between-bombs-and-hope-why-tyre-has-become-lebanons-last-refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/38447\/","title":{"rendered":"Trapped between bombs and hope: Why Tyre has become Lebanon’s last refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

TYRE, Lebanon\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Whatever choices Hassan Kareet had left were all bad.<\/p>\n

Israeli bombardment, not to mention the threat of an invasion, meant Kareet couldn\u2019t stay in the village of Bazourieh, some 11 miles from Lebanon\u2019s border with Israel.<\/p>\n

But finding a place to stay in a country where an estimated 1.3 million people are already displaced was impossibly difficult as the war between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.<\/p>\n

Shelters were full, and landlords were demanding \u2014 and getting \u2014 exorbitant rents and advance payments that Kareet, who owns a pet shop specializing in birds, simply couldn\u2019t afford.<\/p>\n

\"An <\/p>\n

An elderly displaced woman wipes her eyes as she sits in her room at a school being used as a shelter for displaced people in Tyre, Lebanon. <\/p>\n

(Dimitar Dilkoff \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Desperate, he brought his family to Tyre. It too was under Israeli evacuation orders, but at least there were places to stay for his wife and four children. And when things felt too crowded, they could escape here to Tyre\u2019s public park, where Kareet\u2019s 5-year-old son, Ali, was playing on a slide.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"Lebanese <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"Smoke <\/p>\n

1. Lebanese people leave their house after an Israeli bombardment in Tyre, Lebanon, on March 24. (FABIO BUCCIARELLI\/Middle East Images\/AFP via Getty) 2. Smoke rises from the ruins of a building destroyed in an IDF airstrike in Tyre, Lebanon, on March 24. , 2026. Israel pressed on with strikes across Lebanon after Hezbollah opened a new front in the regional war on March 2, following US-Israeli attacks on Iran. (Photo by Fabio Bucciarelli \/ Middle East Images \/ AFP via Getty Images) (FABIO BUCCIARELLI\/Middle East Images\/AFP via Getty) <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re scattered: some in one school, others in another shelter. I slept in the car,\u201d Kareet said, keeping one eye on Ali and another on the sky for the Israeli warplane he could hear prowling above.<\/p>\n

Another advantage to being here: Tyre was close enough to Bazourieh that he could go and feed the 60 birds he owns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t release them. They wouldn\u2019t survive, and besides, we just got new hatchlings,\u201d he said. Yes, he was afraid of an Israeli attack, he added, but, \u201cWhat should I do? I can\u2019t just let them die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyre, the country\u2019s fifth-largest city and a normally bustling beach town with postcard-perfect views of the Mediterranean, has become a sanctuary of last resort even as the specter of a long-term Israeli occupation looms over south Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\"Tents <\/p>\n

Tents inside the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, now being used as a shelter, in Beirut. <\/p>\n

(Adri Salido \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In recent days, the Israeli military bombed bridges around Tyre, which lies 12 miles north of the Israeli border, almost cutting it off from the rest of the country. <\/p>\n

But around 20,000 people \u2014 roughly 16,000 displaced from nearby towns and villages, along with 4,000 of the city\u2019s residents \u2014 remain, according to government officials. Before the war, the city population was 60,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere else can I go? The first night we left, we ended up sleeping on the seafront corniche in Sidon. I won\u2019t do that again,\u201d said Atallah, 52, sitting in the shade of a tree with his son, brother and sister-in-law.<\/p>\n

He referred to the city of Sidon, 22 miles up the coast from Tyre and out of the area Israel says it will occupy, which extends around 20 miles from the border and encompasses a tenth of Lebanon\u2019s territory. Atallah and his family members did not give their full name for fear of harassment.<\/p>\n

Although the Israeli military issued multiple bomb warnings that day for Tyre, including a strike that was less than a mile from the park, Atallah couldn\u2019t stay cooped up in the makeshift shelter in a nearby school, where his family was sharing a classroom with three other families.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have stayed in my village, but I couldn\u2019t leave them,\u201d he said, gesturing toward his son, Mohammad, who has Down syndrome and was burying his face in Atallah\u2019s stomach as the warplane roared above. <\/p>\n

Moments later, a bass thump sounded in the distance. Atallah walked to get a clearer view of the telltale plume of smoke indicating where a bomb or missile had hit; the whole way, Mohammad clung to Atallah\u2019s leg.<\/p>\n

\"Two <\/p>\n

People run in front of the tents of an improvised shelter on the waterfront in Beirut. <\/p>\n

(Adri Salido \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

War returned to Lebanon on March 2 when the Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah launched rockets on Israel to avenge the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed when Israel and the U.S. attacked Iran on Feb. 28. <\/p>\n

Hezbollah also was retaliating for near-daily Israeli attacks despite a ceasefire agreement reached 15 months ago.<\/p>\n

Israel responded with a blistering assault that has stunned Lebanon with the scope of its destruction. So far, almost 1,100 have been killed and a quarter of the country\u2019s population displaced, authorities say.<\/p>\n

This week, Israel said that its troops will invade a swath of south Lebanon to create a \u201cdefensive buffer zone,\u201d and that no residents could return until northern Israel was secure. The Israeli defense minister also said the military would apply the \u201cGaza model\u201d to parts of south Lebanon, meaning that entire villages and towns would be razed and residents permanently uprooted.<\/p>\n

The announcement raised fears about the long-term effects of the Israeli offensive. <\/p>\n

\"Smoke <\/p>\n

An Israeli self-propelled howitzer artillery gun fires rounds toward southern Lebanon from a position in the upper Galilee in northern Israel. <\/p>\n

(Jack Guez \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a short shock. \u2026 The crisis is no longer only about where people sleep tonight, but how they will live, eat, and access healthcare in the weeks ahead,\u201d wrote Firass Abiad, who served as Lebanon\u2019s health minister until 2025, in a post on X on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cResources that were already barely sufficient for the poorest will now have to stretch even further.\u201d <\/p>\n

Randa, Atallah\u2019s sister-in-law, said Israel\u2019s announcement that it would invade had only increased her determination to stay. Though she was not part of Hezbollah, she, like many others interviewed in Tyre, supported the group.<\/p>\n

\u201cI left to another part of Lebanon the last war and I regretted it. I won\u2019t make the same mistake, and I trust the men who are fighting the Israelis,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be the first time Alwan Charafeddine, Tyre\u2019s deputy mayor, experienced Israeli incursions.<\/p>\n

1 <\/p>\n

\"French <\/p>\n

2 <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

1. French paratroopers, part of a multinational force, supervise the evacuation of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat among the crowd and journalists on Aug. 30, 1982, in Beirut. (DOMINIQUE FAGET\/AFP via Getty Images) 2. A convoy of Syrian army vehicles leaves Beirut, on Aug. 30, 1982, as more than 10,000 fighters from the Palestine Liberation Organization evacuate from the city. Israel invaded Lebanon that year.
(DOMINIQUE FAGET\/AFP via Getty Images) <\/p>\n

The earliest one Charafeddine remembers was when Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982; he was 9 years old, and the family escaped at 3 a.m. just as the bombs were falling near their home in Tyre. With a detached air, he counted off other bouts of displacement: in 1996, 2000, 2001 and 2006.<\/p>\n

\u201cUs and our kids, we\u2019re generations of war,\u201d he said, adding that even people who don\u2019t support Hezbollah would fight if the Israeli military invaded Tyre.<\/p>\n

The municipality\u2019s main problem for the moment, Charafeddine said, was that only one crossing into Tyre survives, a narrow bridge on the old coastal road. Even now, aid organizations were reluctant to deliver into the city for fear of getting stuck, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they take out the last bridge and nothing can come in, it\u2019s going to be a catastrophe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Most of the displaced are now sardined in the city\u2019s quaint Old Quarter, which lies on a promontory jutting out of Tyre\u2019s northernmost tip and is excluded from the evacuation order.<\/p>\n

On an unseasonably warm afternoon, families flocked to the waterfront, sunning themselves before an azure-blue Mediterranean. Some tried to continue their routine, walking their dogs or jogging by the sea.<\/p>\n

\"Smoke <\/p>\n

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjeyoun shows smoke as it rises from a site targeted by Israeli artillery in the village of Zawtar El Charkiyeh on March 25. <\/p>\n

(AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

One person seemingly determined to ignore the war was Adnan Abdo, a Syrian Kurd who worked as a farmhand in Tyre. As the sea lapped around him, he balanced himself on a rock and cast a fishing line into the sea.<\/p>\n

He was the victim of multiple conflicts, he said: Tensions against Kurds in Syria meant he didn\u2019t feel safe going home, and with even Lebanese having a hard time, there was little hope of him finding a place for his wife and two kids to stay elsewhere in Lebanon. <\/p>\n

Besides, Israel was striking in areas well beyond Hezbollah\u2019s traditional areas of support, so nowhere was safe. His family was staying in one of Tyre\u2019s churches. <\/p>\n

For now, he was enjoying the chance to fish. He had already caught several, and a tug of resistance on the line hinted he would get another. <\/p>\n

Around him, people looked upward, searching for the warplane. But he kept his eyes on the sea.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat can I do about that plane anyway? Nothing,\u201d Abdo said, before he drew in another fish. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TYRE, Lebanon\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Whatever choices Hassan Kareet had left were all bad. Israeli bombardment, not to mention the threat of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[16818,16820,7226,1555,2990,16819,37,72,93,9555,4436,396,3304,8055,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-38447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lebanon","8":"tag-atallah","9":"tag-bomb","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-country","12":"tag-family","13":"tag-hezbollah-intensifie","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-israeli-military","16":"tag-lebanon","17":"tag-mile","18":"tag-part","19":"tag-people","20":"tag-tyre","21":"tag-village","22":"tag-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116300619688563395","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}