Beirut, Lebanon – Earlier than Israel’s battle on Lebanon, Ali (full title withheld for security causes) lived in Haddatha, a village within the Bint Jbeil district within the south, about 12km (7.5 miles) from the border with Israel, surrounded by nature the place agriculture was intrinsic to life.
Then got here Israel’s “hellfire”.
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At the least 9 folks had been killed and a few 3,000 injured, together with the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, when thousands of pagers exploded, practically concurrently, overwhelming hospitals on September 17, 2024.
Six days later, Israel escalated its assaults throughout the south, killing practically 600 folks, in what was the nation’s deadliest day because the nation’s ruinous civil battle led to 1990, and displacing a couple of million folks.
“Our home was destroyed,” he instructed Al Jazeera. Ali took refuge in a city about 20km (12.5 miles) north of Haddatha, referred to as Burj Qalaway.
However greater than a yr later, he’s but to return dwelling regardless of a ceasefire. He’s certainly one of tens of hundreds who’re nonetheless displaced from their houses round Lebanon and who say that what little they’ve acquired in assist from the Lebanese state or Hezbollah shouldn’t be sufficient to rebuild their lives or houses destroyed throughout the battle.
South ‘not secure’
On November 27, 2024, a ceasefire got here into impact between Hezbollah and Israel. The settlement delivered to an finish greater than a yr of cross-border assaults and a two-month-long Israeli intensification that killed hundreds in Lebanon, principally civilians, and devastated civilian infrastructure.
Below the ceasefire, cross-border assaults had been presupposed to cease, Hezbollah was to withdraw north of the Litani River, which runs throughout south Lebanon, and Israel was to withdraw troops that had invaded south Lebanon in October.
Israel, nevertheless, by no means stopped attacking. Its military nonetheless occupies 5 factors in southern Lebanon, and throughout the ceasefire, it razed several villages to the bottom.
An estimated 1.2 million people, greater than 1 / 4 of the Lebanese inhabitants, had been displaced throughout the battle. On the morning of November 27, a whole bunch of hundreds of individuals streamed south to their villages to return home. However tens of hundreds extra have been left behind and are nonetheless unable to go dwelling.
“The south shouldn’t be secure,” Ali mentioned. “I’m afraid that I could be strolling someplace and a raid will assault a automobile subsequent to me.”
Israeli attacks proceed throughout the south and the Bekaa Valley within the east on a near-daily foundation, with the Lebanese authorities counting greater than 2,000 Israeli violations of the 2024 ceasefire deal within the final three months of 2025.
Ali shouldn’t be alone. The Worldwide Group for Migration estimates that greater than 64,000 persons are nonetheless internally displaced in Lebanon, in line with figures compiled in October 2025.
Whole villages ‘razed’
A few of the 64,000 can not return to their houses alongside the border area with Israel. Israeli troopers nonetheless maintain 5 factors on Lebanese territory, managing massive swaths of south Lebanon by means of violence and expertise: utilizing drones, air raids, shelling or gunfire. Because the ceasefire, Israel has killed greater than 330 folks in Lebanon, together with a minimum of 127 civilians.
Melina*, from Odaisseh, a village on the southern border, lived most of her life in Nabatieh. Throughout the battle, she was displaced to Sidon, a southern metropolis about 44km (27 miles) south of Beirut.
“I haven’t been capable of go to my village,” she instructed Al Jazeera. “Psychologically, I can’t bear to see our home, which was fully destroyed, and the complete village was razed to the bottom.”
“The safety scenario stays extraordinarily harmful,” she mentioned. “You would be shot at by the Israeli facet at any second, and it’s unsafe to journey with out a Lebanese military escort.”
Ali runs a market in Burj Qalaway, however he says the earnings shouldn’t be sufficient to rebuild his dwelling. There are additionally different considerations. Israel has attacked reconstruction gear in southern Lebanon, drawing criticism from human rights teams.
“Amid the ceasefire, Israeli forces have carried out assaults that unlawfully goal reconstruction-related gear and amenities,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, mentioned in a December 2025 report. “After decreasing a lot of Lebanon’s southern border cities to rubble, the Israeli army is now making it way more troublesome for tens of hundreds of residents to rebuild their destroyed houses and return to their cities.”
Some Lebanese additionally fear a renewed Israeli offensive much like the one in 2024.
‘Couldn’t see 2cm in entrance of me’
On July 30, 2024, at about 7:40pm, Ramez* was sitting in his bed room at dwelling in Haret Hreik, a neighbourhood in Beirut’s southern suburbs referred to domestically as Dahiyeh, an space usually focused previously by Israel for the Hezbollah presence there.
His cats had been roaming across the room, and he was busy on his cellphone when he heard loud explosions.
The battle had been raging within the south, however assaults on Beirut and its suburbs weren’t but as widespread. “I heard greater than 9 bangs,” Ramez mentioned. He ran out of his bed room to assist his household evacuate. He left his door open, he mentioned, so his cats might escape. Whereas telling his mom to seize her issues, he heard the loudest bang.
“The entire neighbouring constructing simply collapsed and fell on us,” he mentioned. Israel had simply levelled the constructing subsequent to his, killing Fuad Shukr, a prime Hezbollah commander.
“I couldn’t see 2cm in entrance of me due to the fog and the mud.”
Proper: Ramez’s sister’s automobile was destroyed within the assault on his dwelling in July 2024 [Courtesy of Ramez*]
Ramez’s household escaped unscathed, although their home was badly broken and his sister’s automobile was destroyed. His cats additionally survived. He discovered them the subsequent day.
“I all the time questioned how folks simply undergo one thing like this and simply transfer on, saying, OK, Alhamdulillah, everyone seems to be alive,” he says, although, “at that time I type of understood it”.
Because the finish of the battle, he has been capable of return to his household dwelling in Haret Hreik. However his household needed to pay for a lot of the reconstruction themselves, with little assist from the federal government or any group.
They registered with the federal government for help however mentioned they acquired solely a one-time cost of 30 million Lebanese kilos (just a little greater than $330).
Hezbollah additionally despatched engineers to evaluate the injury. In December 2024, the Reuters information company reported that Hezbollah would pay about $77m and hire to households affected by battle. Some locals mentioned funds from the group helped a bit, however others mentioned it had stopped paying nonmembers or tried to undervalue their losses.
“They had been very stingy with funds,” Ramez mentioned. “They tried to make us settle for low funds, however my mother stood her floor and mentioned it’s sufficient.”
Different individuals who had been displaced by the battle instructed Al Jazeera that the help supplied by the state and Hezbollah was very restricted.
Struggle is ‘most horrible’
Stories are blended over Hezbollah’s monetary functionality, and it’s troublesome to find out how badly they’ve been hit financially after the group’s political and army management was devastated by 2024’s battle and suffered a number of Israeli assassinations, together with their longtime charismatic chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
The fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria additionally dealt Hezbollah a critical blow, disrupting the land path to its predominant benefactor, Iran – itself now reeling from deadly protests and bracing for a attainable US attack. The group is beneath immense strain from the Lebanese authorities to disarm, with the US and Israel making use of strain.
Additional compounding the disaster is the truth that Lebanon is now virtually seven years into one of many worst economic crises in additional than 150 years, in line with the World Financial institution. This has hit locals onerous, with many having their financial institution accounts frozen and the foreign money devaluing by greater than 90 p.c.
This has left most of the displaced feeling deserted and not sure of how one can proceed.
There have been violent Israeli air raids within the south on Saturday, which continued on Sunday. Within the meantime, folks like Ali need to proceed determining methods to outlive as their displacement carries on nicely previous the one-year mark.
“We love life, however the scenario shouldn’t be good. Wars break your again,” Ali mentioned. “Struggle is essentially the most horrible factor on the earth.”
*Actual names withheld for security causes.
Joao Sousa contributed to this report.
