Lebanon's Abandoned Lives

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1:13Mike and his guests offer their perspective on how policy changes could affect what you do with your portfolio. Download the latest episode and follow at schwab.com slash Washington Wise or wherever you listen. Welcome to the documentary. This is Karine Torbay on assignment in Lebanon.

1:39Teer has very nice weather, you know. You see people like me swimming during the winter, diving, kite surfing. For me, Teer is like the best place in the world. This is Roshana. She's 39. Tir is her home. It's on the coast in the south of Lebanon, 20 kilometres away from the border with Israel. This is our daily life. Like on the afternoon when people finish their work, the streets are full, you know. The restaurants are full, the coffee shops are full. I mean, we had a beautiful life. At the end of February, Roshana was busy planning a party for her daughter Freya. Freya was about to turn four.

2:24I was showing Freya's pictures to choose the cake, and then I told her to choose a dress. She chose the green dress and the snacks that we're going to have for her birthday. She was so much into her fourth birthday, and she was talking about it all the time. Everything was ready, but it was a party that never happened.

2:48Once again, life in Lebanon was interrupted by war. Israelis are targeting Hezbollah, the Shia militia group backed by Iran, with both airstrikes and ground troops in Lebanon. In March, Hezbollah militants fired rockets into Israel from Lebanon. Retaliation, Hezbollah said, for the U.S. and Israeli war killing Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. Also for Israeli missile strikes into Lebanon during what was meant to be a ceasefire from a previous war. Israel responded, escalating its military operations in Lebanon. Israel has already told civilians in dozens of villages in southern Lebanon to get out of their homes, a sign that they have plans for a big military push.

3:41Israeli troops invaded southern Lebanon. Their objective, they said, to guarantee Israel's security by destroying Hezbollah's military capabilities. Lebanon and its long-suffering citizens have been dragged into another war that most people in their battered country do not want. I'm Karin Torbay, a BBC correspondent in Lebanon. There's a fragile ceasefire now in Beirut. It's meant to be across the whole country, But in reality, the conflict goes on in the south. It's estimated about a million people have been displaced by the war. I've been meeting some of the many Lebanese people who've had to abandon their homes and whose lives are now on hold.

4:29I live in an area called Kosh. I'm probably the only Christian who lives in that area. I have the best neighbourhood, the best friends. People don't care about politics. They don't care about religion. They don't care. They just, like, people want to live. Roshana Pshara Atme lives with her two daughters in a neighborhood of Teer. As well as Freya, she has another daughter, Jennifer, who's 15. She goes to school. She loves playing guitar. She loves acting. And my dream was always to have my kids growing up in this country. On the 1st of March, Roshana was at home. Her husband, a foreign aid worker, was a brute.

5:08When hostilities with Israel escalated that night, most people living close to the border packed up and left. But Roshana was oblivious to what was going on. On Sunday night, I went to bed early. I was very sick. I took very strong painkiller and I went to sleep around nine. Five o 'clock in the morning, I wake up on the doorbell. I woke up and I was scared. I was like, why is someone ringing the bell at this time in the morning? A family friend was at the door to wake her up. The first thing that crossed my mind, like someone in the family passed away. And he told me, no, don't worry, no one passed away, but you need to pack your stuff, take your daughters and leave.

5:55I asked him why, and I looked out of the window when he said Hezbollah shot six rockets into Israel and we need to leave. I was in shock. I was like, I can't believe this is happening again. We only had a few minutes to leave because I didn't know what was going on, what time the rockets were shot. Like, I'm leaving now. I didn't even have the time to water the plants or to empty the fridge. I didn't have time to do anything. I left everything behind me, all the memories, everything. I carried Freya from her bed and we just left with the pyjamas on.

6:33Five million people live in Lebanon. One in five of them have had to move out of their homes because of the most recent conflict. But it's not the first time people in Lebanon have been displaced within their own country. Beirut is home for 25-year-old Yasmina. Beirut is a very vibrant city, if you want. It's filled with such diversity. It's honestly like the heartbeat of Lebanon. Obviously, everyone knows about nightlife in Lebanon and in Beirut, and everything's close by and so familiar. To me, it's a safe space. It's my area and it's my home. But in 2024, home certainly didn't feel safe for Yasmino.

7:21Unfortunately, last war, we had to move out of our house. We lived in Rasenaba. We live with my grandmother in that building, and she had gone through a few health issues. So we were talking and discussing, like, what if we need to leave? Where would we go? They had rented another apartment outside of Beirut, to the north, somewhere thought to be safer. Yasmina remembers packing up to go. It was on a Sunday at around 1 p.m. My mom and I were loading things into the car, and I had the last bag. I was figuring out how I'm going to put it when the bombs started falling on us. The building next to theirs was being hit.

8:02And I was facing the direction where the airstrikes were happening. So I saw the second and third missile coming down. And I remember in that moment what I was thinking. How am I going to close the car door? I didn't want the dust from the building to get into the stuff because we had a few blankets. It feels so weird to be thinking of something so basic in that moment. Israel was firing missiles on Beirut, saying it was striking members of Hezbollah in self-defense. For a month, the two sides had been engaged in low-level exchanges of fire during Israel's war in Gaza. The apartment block next to where Yasmina lived was one of those Israel-targeted.

8:49It was an overwhelming experience. And I ran back into the building. So having them to deal with that entire situation, getting my grandmother down to the car, my grandfather had refused to leave the house. He's like, they already hit. We're safe now. We had to bargain with him till he agreed to go with us. The drive to the house was a 20 minute drive. However, it felt like hours. I remember I argued with my dad because we couldn't find one of our cats. We're arguing over little stuff and ignoring the big picture. The family moved back to Beirut after the war in 2024, but they're ready to leave again at a moment's notice if they have to.

9:38Obviously, considering the current situation, everyone needs to think of a plan B, but I'm assuming every Lebanese person has an emergency bug by the door. It has all the essentials, a change of clothes, your legal documents. Somehow it became normal. In an unstable situation, you're going to have to figure out where to go and how to move. You just need to go on autopilot and not think of it on the spot. Plan B for Roshana, who'd left Tyr in a hurry with her children and little else, was to drive to her sister's house further up the coast. Daughter Freya was too young to understand why they were making the journey.

10:24Freya was sitting in the car seat in her pyjamas and she was happy because I told her we were going to Saida to her auntie's house. And her cousin was six years old and she loves playing with her. So she thought this is like a weekend trip. But older daughter Jennifer remembered being displaced by war with Israel two years before.

11:02They spent the night at her sister's house, sleeping on the floor. When I woke up in the morning and Freya was telling me, it's my birthday today. She knew it's the 3rd of March, it's Tuesday. When I went to say good morning to her, she hugged me. She told me, it's my birthday today, right? And I started crying. I told her, yes, it's your birthday. She said, so am I going to wear the green dress today? I looked at her, even thinking about it now makes me cry. I looked at her and I said, yes, you will. You will wear your green dress. In the rush to leave home the day before, the green dress, like the rest of their belongings, had been left behind.

11:50And that's when I went and told my brother, I'm going back to Teer, and he was like, they are striking on Teer, you cannot do this. I told him, no, I will do it, and you're not going to stop me. To be honest, it wasn't my brain working, it was my emotions. Like, those kids have been through enough already. I'm not going to take this from her. She already left her house. We don't know if she's going to go back to her house. We don't know if her toys are still going to be there, her stuff, her memories. If she wants the green dress, I'm going to risk it and I'm going to get her the green dress. We went to my house, straight to my house Picked up Freya's dress, picked up a few things and left the house I drove back to Saida, I went and I got her a cake Got her gifts, like I was thinking this is from my mom and dad This is from my sister in the mountains And because we were 13 people in the house at that time The people who were staying at my sister's house, they had kids with them So in the afternoon we did a small birthday for her

13:00I gave her all the gifts I told her this is from grandma and grandpa this is from your friend at school she was holding her dress all day and walking around in the house showing it to everyone and telling everyone that it's her birthday and she's going to be wearing this dress today I was doing my best to make her feel normal like to try and have her to have a normal birthday

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15:21Make your next financial move with confidence. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast on your favourite podcast app. You're listening to Assignment from the BBC World Service. I'm Karine Torbay, and in this episode, we're hearing about what life is like in Lebanon, a country repeatedly hit by war. While many people managed to stay with friends and family, not everyone had someone they could turn to for help. When the most recent war started, state-run schools were turned into displacement centres to accommodate thousands of people with nowhere else to go.

16:06We meet Yasmina again. She's a social worker and is part of a team organized by the International Medical Corps. We drive out with her to a school where they provide help and support to people who are now living in them. So Yasmina, can you please, you know, what do you do there? What do you actually do when you go to a displacement centre? So usually when we go to the shelters, we focus on both medical and social services. So in terms of medical services, we have doctors and nurses and the pharmacy that go with us. First time I went to school, to the shelter, it was overwhelming. I was walking into the shelter with my colleagues and it was raining.

16:50And the first thing we see, so there's like this corridor and then there's a playground. And we were trying to figure out where we would put the doctors, how we're going to set up for our shelter visit. and displaced people were coming to us and they were asking us, what do you guys do? How can you help? Can you help us get mattresses? Can you help us get blankets? We were swarmed by people and they were just basically asking for their basic needs. Because a lot of people had to leave their homes in the moment. So they weren't able to, let's say, get their medication. A lot of people have diabetes or heart problem and all of that.

17:26So their medication is essential. It was chaotic in the beginning. More than you'd expect. Because, OK, we've been through a war before, we know what it's like to a certain extent, and it's recent. But things are different somehow. The school, now a shelter that we arrive at with Yasmina, is closed to the centre of Beirut. People have been here for several weeks. With all the uncertainty, it's not safe for them to go home. So basically they are setting up a tent in the middle of the main court of the school. This is a tent that will become the mobile clinic where people will come for medical consultation.

18:11There is also the cubicle curtains, the hospital privacy curtains, the white partition. And this also will help provide more privacy. So this is how the IMC, the International Medical Corps, is setting up this clinic. My name is Zainab. I'm a student at the Lebanese University. I study law. It's my second year. Because of the war, we stopped our studying. And we just immigrated to a school here in Jamiria Was. At the shelter, we meet Zainab. She's 21 and from Dahi. Dahi is a large southern area of Beirut. Zainab had to come to this shelter when the Israeli military issued evacuation orders warning it would strike buildings, it said, where Hezbollah targets.

19:07It started when the Israelis threatened to bomb and issued a blanket warning for the whole of Dahi. Yes. Okay, on that day, where were you? We went home. It was Ramadan. We were having our sahur. Which is the last meal of the day before the sun rises. Yes. I was like, I want to just go. I don't want my family to get hurt. I don't want to get hurt. We just, like, pack our things quickly and get out. Buildings in Dahye have been targeted by Israeli missile strikes. Have you gone back home since the ceasefire? I have gone once. I just checked the house and then... It's still OK? It's still standing?

19:56It's standing, but when you see those buildings... Completely flattened. Completely flattened. It's hard to you. You feel like I was born there. It's like a piece of my heart. It's come to ashes. Yeah. What is the first thing you checked on when you went back home? My room. As usual. I missed my bed, I missed my room, I missed my clothes. Everything. Tell us a little bit about your setting here at the school. We're living here in a room, a classroom. Yeah. How many of you? We're a lot. My cousins, us, my sisters, my siblings. All in the same room. Yeah, all of us in the same room. Sleeping on the floor.

20:43On a mattress. Yes. It feels intrusive to ask Zeynep to show us where she sleeps. But as part of her work, Yasmina has seen inside several classrooms where families now live. As you would expect, the schools are filled to the brim. We're talking some schools have over 500, 600 displaced people and four to five families inside one small room. So we're talking around 12-ish people per room. Obviously, there are still teaching materials on the wall. It's very weird to look at it. So there's like the multiplication table, for example. And then you look right under that, you'd see a person's entire living space.

21:30So they would divide the entire room into smaller sections using tables and chairs. And they would put a blanket that would separate each section. I mean, it's so resourceful the way they hang things in order to, let's say, dry their clothes or just manage their space. Despite everything, Zeynep says she's doing her best to carry on with her life and her studies. Have you gone back to university? No, not yet. Are you going to? They're teaching us online. How is it going? It's hard. It's hard to us because of the internet. Not every time we have electricity here, our phones died. She tells me her family has been through some really tough times recently.

22:21My dad has died five months ago. We were by ourselves, you know. Your father had died five months ago? Because of cancer. Yeah. So you were living with your sisters, brothers and your mother? It's kind of hard, but... You're still smiling. You still have this very charming smile. Thank you. Is this hiding pain or is it just trying to see things in a positive way despite everything? In this situation, we don't need to show the Israelis that we are in pain. So you see this as if you show pain, it could be interpreted as a sign of weakness. Yes, we're not weak.

23:16A few days later, I managed to get into southern Beirut, into Dahye, the district Zainab calls home. It's just two or three miles away from where she's staying at the shelter. In one street, we get to see the impact of a missile strike. The only thing I'm seeing in front of me is a very large mound of rubble where everything is just sheer destruction in front of me. You can see lots of concrete, but also metal, cardboard. It must have been a series of buildings that were brought to the floor. Like in close-ups, we can see, you know, details of what was life here, like a shirt or the bag of some spices.

24:12This must have been from some kitchen. A handful of workers are here clearing away the debris, but this once busy district is otherwise empty. Dahye has been an area completely deserted because of the blanket evacuation warning by the Israelis for weeks. Actually, people have not returned to this area. It can't be inhabitable at the moment because it lacks lots of services. All the buildings around us are empty. There are lots of shops. They're all closed. And some of the doors are completely broken. That's from the effect of the blasts. This one is like a little grocery shop. There is a petrol station next to us.

25:01Everything completely at the moment shut.

25:06In lots of ways, life for many residents in Beirut goes on as normal. They go to work, walk along the seafront, meet up in cafes and bars. People here have got used to the sounds of Israeli drones flying overhead, monitoring daily life. But for Yasmina, some things are hard to ignore. So we're talking about Beirut already being so densely populated. You're adding like half a million to a million people. Having so many more people and just the amount of cars, that's the first thing you see. Then when you're going into the open spaces, like you mentioned, the waterfront area, you start seeing the tents.

25:48There isn't enough room for everyone to shelter in schools, so many displaced people have had to camp out on the streets. When the war started, they were placing their tents in Sehta Shahada. Martyr Square. It's a main landmark in this city. So you'd just be driving by and you'd see hundreds of tents just lined up on the side of the road. Obviously, these are not ideal living conditions. They're trying to survive. It's not living, it's survival at this point. Roshana and her two daughters, Jennifer and Freya, are among those now adding to the population of the city. Previously, they'd been staying at Roshana's sister's house in Sayda.

26:33But things were getting crowded. The first few days, we also had a lot of people coming in to stay in my sister's house. She was also helping friends coming from TIR and different areas. She told them to come and stay in her house, not in their cars on the streets. Roshana decided it would be best to rent a flat in Beirut. And my sister was like, wait, what if this don't let, don't waste your money. Maybe it will finish in a week. You can stay here as much as you want. But I was thinking, if this is going to last long, I need to find a place. She started making calls. They wanted like six months in advance and it was between$2 ,000 and$3 ,000 per month.

27:11And for Lebanon, those prices are crazy. Crazy. She rented a flat from a landlady in Beirut at a reasonable price. But before she could move in, there were problems. So everything was going smooth and easy until she sent the message on the neighbours' WhatsApp group. And she told them, you have new neighbours coming in, just so you know. and they went furious. Roshana says people in neighboring flats were worried. As she was from the south of Lebanon, they feared, wrongly, that she might be connected to Hezbollah and that could make their building a target for an Israeli strike. They were telling her, we don't want anyone here, it's scary, we don't want to be killed, we don't want to risk our lives and she was trying to explain for them that this is a Christian family and her husband is free that she sent them the passports, the ID cards, everything, and they still refused.

28:10Here people believe everyone from the south has something to do with husband. After some negotiation, Rashana moved in. The flat is fully furnished, but it's still costing Rashana$1 ,000 a month when she already has a house in Teer. You work hard, you save money, thinking this is the money for the university, for the girls when they start university. Or this summer we're going to travel to Sweden, let's say. So you start saving money and making plans and suddenly the war starts. And so you go and spend all your money on the war because you have to rent a house, you have to buy clothes. So everything you pay double and twice and three times.