By Isaac J. Martin
Beirut, Oct 25 (EFE).- With winter just around the corner, many of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by Israeli attacks in Lebanon remain out in the open in their cars or tents without knowing where to go.
Aid organizations have a plan ready, but people’s needs could be many more.
On the walk that leads to the famous Pigeon Rock in Beirut, parked cars have been converted into temporary housing, as well as tents in the middle of one of the capital’s two busiest roads.
One of them is an Egyptian and Syrian family, with two children. Neither of the two, who asked not to be identified for safety fears, and who have fled from the southern suburbs of Beirut, have legal residency in the country.
«Winter is better than bombs,» said the woman, who has been there for three weeks with her family while her husband seeks to register at the Egyptian embassy to travel to Cairo. In the meantime, they are looking at how to reinforce their tent for the heavy rains that usually fall at this time in the city.
«What we need today is basically everything to make sure that these people can survive the winter months after having survived the Israeli bombings,» said Nour Shawaf, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Policy Advisor in Lebanon, in an interview with EFE.
According to government figures, about 1.2 million people have been forced to leave their homes – the equivalent of one in five inhabitants of Lebanon – due to the escalation of Israeli bombings that began a month ago and the subsequent ground invasion.
Shawaf said needs are escalating «very quickly» and «there are still thousands of people on the streets, whether in Beirut or outside Beirut» and, for this reason, Oxfam is distributing all kinds of products.
«What we are doing is understanding what people need and fulfilling it. But, again, the needs are immense,» he said, adding that they will see this, above all, in the winter months.
Other humanitarian sources in Lebanon, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of this issue, told EFE that if the situation continues like this «it will explode» and it is «practically impossible» to meet all the needs of the displaced.
The donors’ conference that met Thursday in Paris exceeded $1 billion of urgent aid to Lebanon, which far exceeds the needs listed by the United Nations, of which about $866 million are for emergency humanitarian aid.
«People cannot be on the streets. It will rain very hard in Beirut and people need adequate shelters,» said the Oxfam advisor, adding that «they have escaped from Israeli bombing and now need to feel as safe as possible. They really don’t know where they can take refuge.»
To date, according to government figures, almost 1,100 approved shelters for internally displaced people have been opened and the number of shelters that have reached their maximum capacity across the country has reached 908.
The issue of shelters is becoming increasingly complicated in the country, especially because the residents of the shelters are suspicious of who they are, since they could be the targets of selective Israeli attacks.
In fact, Israel has attacked Christian-majority areas, far from the areas where they usually operate, targeting figures affiliated with Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah or the Palestinian Hamas. Many civilians have also died in these actions, including children.
«Basically, the things that are needed most now in Lebanon are winter clothes that keep us warm because winter is near, and the clothes that are distributed now are quite light and mid-season, so we need quite thick clothes,» Khadija Ezzeddine, acting director of the NGO Inara for Lebanon, told EFE.
«Above all, we need shelters, because there are still a lot of people on the streets who can withstand the weather so far, but soon they won’t be able to withstand the winter cold,» she said.
Ezzeddine said they have had cases where they have moved displaced people from the south to Tripoli, in the north, but the school that hosts them has asked everyone to leave «because the neighbors around don’t want them in the region out of fear.»
«We are trying to find a building we can manage and bring some cases to, but so far we haven’t found any,» she said. EFE
ijm-amo-ar/lds
