As Israel attacks, displaced Lebanese people come together in Hamra

As Israel’s bombs rain down on the south, Lebanese people are fleeing northwards, trying to find safety.

Beirut, Lebanon – Beirut is filling up, possibly way past its capacity, as thousands of people stream into its neighbourhoods, seeking refuge from Israel’s unpredictable air raids.

When it seemed to have been concentrating on bombing the south, Israel soon bombed the north. Then it hit Christian-majority neighbourhoods, upending the guess that they were focusing on Shia-majority areas.

The uncertainty is almost palpable as exhausted people stream into the Hamra neighbourhood of Beirut on Tuesday, some having been on the road for more than 12 hours to cover a distance that normally takes two.

At the Casa D’Or, a four-star hotel on Hamra Street, a couple stands at the check-in desk, trying to negotiate the price for the last room available that night – a suite.

Speaking to them is a receptionist who introduces herself as simply, Lama.

Lama has worked at the Casa D’Or for four years, she says, and she has never seen it as busy as they are right now.

“We’re full,” she says. “Day before yesterday, we were at 40 percent [occupancy].”

Prices have been dropped for Lebanese guests, she adds.

At one point, when they were close to Hamra, the family abandoned their vehicle and trundled their suitcases down the streets, weaving between the cars that they were outpacing on foot.

Abbas is from al-Mansouri, near Tyre in southern Lebanon, but his older son is studying medicine at the American University in Beirut, so they decided to come here rather than head for the mountains as they had when Israel attacked in 2006.

They’re not afraid, he says, because they have already been through so much. “We’re used to this, unfortunately,” he says.

Finding a room at an inn

His younger son, a teenager, is experiencing his first war, Abbas says. “He’s in training,” the doctor jokes.

The family seems happy to all be in the same city, but they are not immune from the tension gripping the country, or the anger.

There’s a gaggle of Syrian teenage boys walking down the street.

They usually work in Hamra, and live in Bir Hassan in the south, a neighbourhood close to Ghobeiry, where Israel was bombing on Tuesday.

They don’t want to go back there tonight, they say, preferring to go find friends in the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp.

“Is it safe here in this neighbourhood?” they ask, a question that is on everyone’s mind, whether they vocalise it or not.

The boys drift off, heading towards Shatila, where they hope they will be safer for the night.

Two women appear, looking slightly out of sorts.

They are from the south and have come up to Beirut from Tyre, where they have been staying for the past year.

In Hamra, they found rooms at the Mayflower Hotel, but discovered to their dismay that they could not find bread.

Their distress attracts the attention of kind passers-by who join the two ladies’ hunt for bread.

A grocery shop owner says there is none to be had, so the search party heads for a falafel shop to ask if the women can buy plain bread.