Footpaths and public squares of Beirut fill with families fleeing invasion

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The footpaths and public squares of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, have been filled with desperate families fleeing Israel’s bombing and invasion. Aid groups say they can not help most of the people who have been forced from their homes.

Transcript

00:00This is normally where Beirut residents come to have fun, to relax, to smoke shisha, to

00:07enjoy the view of the waterfront.

00:08Now it's filled with tents that are home to displaced people from the south of the city,

00:13from central Lebanon and from the south of the country, displaced by Israel's bombardment,

00:18displaced by the invasion.

00:20There are now dozens and dozens of villages where Israel has ordered the residents to

00:25leave and many of these people here have come from the southern suburbs of Beirut.

00:30They've been affected directly by Israel's bombardment.

00:36I was displaced from Aleppo and I came to Lebanon, but these kinds of monstrous acts

00:41I have not seen before.

00:43My house in Syria is gone and now my house here is gone.

00:50I've been here for 12 days, around five days ago I went home to shower, when I was done

00:56I was leaving through Harit Hreik, there was an Israeli strike and I was thrown from my

01:01motorcycle and I was injured.

01:06We request that the world defend us against this evil state.

01:10Look at what happened to us because of the war.

01:13We don't have food to eat.

01:15Look at how we are sleeping.

01:17Look at our situation.

01:19We don't have showers.

01:20It's impossible.

01:22Israel says it's been targeting Hezbollah facilities and leaders, but these people have

01:27lost houses, some have been injured in airstrikes and they ask, what did they do wrong?

01:33The whole country is affected.

01:34There are 1.2 million displaced Lebanese according to the Lebanese government and as you drive

01:40around Beirut, the impacts are everywhere.

01:43Schools have been turned into shelters.

01:46People are sleeping on the footpaths, in their cars, in the yards of churches.

01:51This war is apparently one in which the strikes are targeted, but the impact is widespread.

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