Extract from ABC News
Smoke has become a common sight on Beirut's skyline amid the IDF's attacks. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
The shell of an unfinished council building, in the hills overlooking southern Beirut, was alive with activity.
Not from tradespeople, but with children playing football as their anxious parents watched on.
World Vision is supervising the site in Choueifat, commandeering the building from the local municipality and providing tarpaulins and mattresses for desperate people fleeing the violence elsewhere.
Among them is Fatmeh al Hawle, living in one of the temporary rooms with eight other people.
"This our way of living and our life," she told the ABC. "We had houses and we were living happy lives, now we've become like this.
"Let [the Israelis] stop their attacks on us — it's enough, it's enough, we want to live in peace and safety. "
Crews are scrambling to install running water in the building to help those seeking shelter.
It is but one example of the immense challenge facing Lebanon, as Israel's bombardment of the country continues into a third week.
Fatmeh al Hawle is among those displaced people trying to find shelter in Beirut. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
The Lebanese Red Cross said on Monday that more than 900,000 people across Lebanon are now displaced, as a result of Israel's intense bombardment of the country's south and the capital, Beirut, against claimed Hezbollah targets.
Estimates put the country's total population at between 5 and 6 million. The death toll is now at more than 900, including more than 100 children.
The Iranian-backed militant group, which is considered a terrorist organisation under Australian law, weighed into the broader regional conflict — firing rockets and drones south towards Israel, in solidarity with the Islamic regime in Tehran.
It has fuelled a lot of anger in the community — accusations that Hezbollah has dragged Lebanon into conflict again, and that the country's government is too impotent to deal with the group.
"We want this brutal aggression to stop, we want to live in peace," Fatmeh said. "We have kids we want to raise, for them to live in peace.
"We want our kind and generous state to defend us, to protect us. Unfortunately, we don't have a state that's protecting us."
Beirut's Camille Chamoun Stadium is being used to house people who have fled areas being targeted by the IDF. (ABC News: Cherine Yazbeck)
In southern Beirut, Lebanon's largest sporting stadium is not hosting football teams and their enthusiastic fans.
Camille Chamoun Stadium has a capacity of more than 45,000 people. But at the moment, more than 800 people are seeking shelter under the stands.
"Unfortunately, this is a crisis that involves all of Lebanon," Beirut's Mayor Ibrahim Zaidan told the ABC.
"We always are the first destination for all the people who are moving away from their villages, from the south.
"So what we're doing is trying to do, as best as we can, to accommodate them in the proper places."
Yasmin was among those staying at the stadium, with her husband and children.
"We were bathing the children when [Israel] immediately issued a warning to evacuate the entire southern suburbs of Beirut," she told the ABC. "So we quickly put our things in a van and left right away.
"Honestly, if it were only me, I wouldn't have left, but because of the children, they get frightened and panic."
Yasmin and her children fled southern Lebanon for Beirut after the IDF issued an evacuation order. (ABC News: Cherine Yazbeck)
IDF orders widespread evacuations
The scale of this crisis is greater than what battered and bruised Lebanon has faced before. In previous conflicts, entire suburbs such as Dahiyeh have not been subject to ongoing evacuation or displacement orders from the Israeli military.
Lebanon's Education Minister, Rima Karame, was touring a school just outside the so-called "red zone" on Tuesday.
"It is a lot of pressure, and we are short on resources, especially if the war is extended and the displacement doesn't end soon," she told the ABC.
"That's why we're putting a lot of appeals for the international community for any kind of support, it will make a lot of difference for us."
That process is made all the more difficult by the situation occurring elsewhere in the region — Lebanon's traditional donors in the Gulf, for example, coming under attack from Iran itself.
"This crisis is touching a much larger circle than was the case before," she said. "Some of them have responded to us, but they are not responding at this point at the same level because they have their own situation to manage."
Lebanon's Education Minister Rima Karame makes a point to reporters on Tuesday. (ABC News: Hamish Harty)
Lebanon's social safety net is basically non-existent, as a result of the country's failed economy and internal division after years of sectarian tensions.
It means charities are having to fill the void.
"We cannot tell no for anyone," Father Hanni Tawk told the ABC.
He is the founder of Mariam's Kitchen, which has operated since 2020, following the devastating Beirut port explosion — one of the darkest chapters in the country's history — and helps point to the deep challenges Lebanon still faces.
Father Hanni Tawk prepares a batch of burghul bi dfeen in Mariam's Kitchen. (ABC News: Cherine Yazbeck)
"Normally, in our kitchen … we provide 3,000 hot meals every day," Father Tawk said. "But with this war … we are obliged to go with 5,000 hot meals every day. And it's not easy."
Despite the growing demand, Father Tawk remained remarkably cheerful as he stirred a large pot of burghul bi dfeen — a traditional Lebanese dish.
"It's very famous in our country," he said. "It's like from burghul and chickpeas, and also chicken and many, many spices."
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