PERSONAL STORY: Displaced twice in four days, Lebanese woman left stranded on streets of Beirut

Sixty-six year-old Aliyeh Hijazi, from southern Lebanon, has known wars ever since she was a child. Displaced from her hometown following the recent escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, the mother of ten endured a 17‑hour road escape to Sidon, then a night in Saadiyat before finding brief refuge in Beirut's southern suburbs, only to be displaced again after three days when the Israeli army issued evacuation orders on Thursday (March 5).

Now she sits in the streets with her husband and one daughter, not knowing where the rest of her four sons and six daughters have ended up, scattered in different places.

Israel warned residents to leave Beirut's southern suburbs, including Hezbollah-controlled areas, on Thursday, prompting an exodus from a swathe of the capital, which a far-right Israeli minister said would soon resemble parts of Gaza.

Suggesting a major escalation looms in Israel's offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah, an Israeli military spokesperson told residents of the southern suburbs to move east and north, posting a map showing four large districts of the capital he said they must leave. The area highlighted in the Israeli military map includes neighborhoods controlled by Hezbollah but also spreads into adjoining ones.

Lebanon was pulled into the war in the Middle East on Monday (March 2), when Hezbollah opened fire, sparking Israeli airstrikes focused on the southern suburbs, and on southern and eastern Lebanon.

Hundreds of displaced people gathered in downtown Beirut near the sea. Many, including women and children, could be seen wearing backpacks. A car drove past with mattresses and blankets strapped to the roof, a Reuters reporter said.

Beirut's predominantly Shi'ite Muslim southern suburbs are among the capital's most densely populated areas. The area was pounded by Israeli airstrikes during a war with Hezbollah in 2024, and during a previous war with Israel in 2006.

Israeli bombardment and warnings have already forced tens of thousands of Lebanese to flee homes in the southern suburbs and the south this week.

-Production: Khalil Ashawi, Emilie Madi, Joelle Kozaily/Reuters