Iftar time was approaching, and people trickled downstairs to collect pre-prepared meals of rice, fish and red sauce. Some chatted in the entrance of the unfurnished hotel in west Beirut in which they now live: it is sheltering more than 400 displaced people from almost 90 households.
They might be considered lucky to have a roof over their heads – roads in the city are lined with tents, while other displaced people sleep in vehicles or on the streets – but they struggle with not cooking for themselves, not having the certainties of home, not even knowing if their homes will stay standing.
More than one million people have now registered as displaced in Lebanon, with more than 130,000 staying in hundreds of shelters, say Lebanese authorities. Israeli forces continue to launch regular attacks and reiterate mass evacuation warnings for about 14 per cent of the country.
Khadija (60) fled Beirut’s southern suburbs with her husband, daughter and four grandchildren. She says they have returned home to fetch mattresses and clothing, though it is too dangerous to stay. “They’re treating us well here but ... it’s worse than last time because there’s not so much assistance,” she says.
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Irish MEP and chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Development Barry Andrews visited the shelter on Tuesday.
“There’s a hugely underfunded humanitarian crisis unfolding here,” he says. “I think we’re just not focusing enough on this. It’s much more likely to be protracted. A long drawn-out conflict and in circumstances where Lebanese [people] haven’t really recovered ... from the last crisis and there’s a huge fatigue. Not just donor fatigue, but from ordinary people.”
Aid workers worry that international attention is distracted by everything happening in the broader region. They also note that the war is coming at the time of a global aid crisis.
Pilar Domingo Vargas, head of partnerships and communications at the World Food Programme in Lebanon, says the agency had food stocks already in the region, and had contingency plans in case of war, but it’s still been “devastating.” The agency is providing food and cash assistance in hundreds of shelters.
Lebanese people have also sprang into action. Electrical engineer Hady Basha (48) says they learned from the previous all-out war, and this time those in the safer areas, like him, took action to help “as soon as we heard the bombing” on March 2nd.
He says the first few days were hard – they contacted every charity or non-governmental organisation they knew to ask for help – but now things are running more smoothly. His personal guess is that the war will last for a few months, though of course no one knows for certain.
By Monday, Lebanese authorities said almost 900 people had been killed since the latest conflict began on March 2nd, including 111 children and 38 healthcare workers. At least 2,140 people were injured, including more than 330 children.
Yet in the southern city of Tyre on Monday, Hizbullah MP Hussein al-Jishi denied that Hizbullah firing rockets at Israeli positions on the night of March 2nd was a mistake.
“[It] was more of a defence against all of the aggression that was still ongoing for the last 15 months,” he says. “[Hizbullah] waited for the right time and moment to be able to fight back.”
Jishi refers to the 15 months after the November 2024 ceasefire, during which Israeli forces failed to withdraw completely from Lebanese territory, and persisted in regular attacks and raids inside Lebanon.
A short drive from where Jishi spoke, a temporary cemetery had been prepared, where the bodies of those who die or are killed will be buried until the war ends and it is safe for their families to take them home for a proper funeral.
The Republic’s Department of Foreign Affairs says there are approximately 110 Irish citizens and dependants in Lebanon, and 15,000 Irish citizens remaining across the wider region.
Irish non-resident Ambassador Aidan O’Hara says this St Patrick’s Day is being marked “in the shadow of conflict” and what he called a “futile war”.
“In the absence of better news, let me point to our humanitarian response and the life-saving work of our defence forces personnel in Unifil.”
He notes the €3 million in humanitarian funding which the Republic has announced, as well as €150,000 approved under the State’s civil society funding scheme for Trócaire and an allocation of $15 million by the UN’s Central Emergency Relief Fund, to which the Republic is the fifth-largest donor.
O’Hara says more than 100,000 people have already left Lebanon. And he reiterated that Irish citizens “should consider leaving the country while commercial options are available ... as infrastructure gets targeted, everyone’s attention turns inevitably to the airport in the hope that it will be spared.
“We know the decision to leave is not an easy one and we fully understand the dilemma many of you are facing ... A difficult decision taken now might be one that is least regretted in hindsight.”
