Dalal, a mother of four, was outside her tent preparing food for suhoor, the predawn meal before the day’s Ramadan fast, on Thursday when the ground beneath her feet suddenly shook.
She quickly understood that Israel had attacked the crowded beachfront of Ramlet Al Bayda, in central Beirut, without warning.
Like Dalal, hundreds of displaced civilians – mostly families – were camped out on the public beachfront when Israel struck. Her family was scattered in the chaos.
She began searching for her children, moving towards the scene of the blast. Instead, “I found bodies on the ground. I saw a man, still alive, but too injured to stand. He was crawling. Then the second strike came and he was killed,” she said. “Every time I close my eyes I see him, still crawling in front of me.”
The force of the blast flung two children into the air, said Dalal, who asked that her real name be withheld. “It was just like what we see in Gaza. I can’t erase what I saw.”
Wednesday night was one of the most violent nights in Beirut since Israel resumed a wide-ranging bombing campaign in Lebanon last week, with strikes raining down on the capital's southern suburbs.
Many of the people camped at Ramlet Al Bayda had fled from the southern suburb of Dahiyeh earlier that evening, after the Israeli army warned it would target the area. They gathered at the seafront thinking it would be a safe place to wait out the attack.
At least 12 people were killed and 28 injured in the strike on the crowded Beirut seaside, Lebanese authorities said.
Dalal's family was among the last to leave Ramlet Al Bayda after the attack, with hundreds of people fleeing in the immediate aftermath. She spoke to The National as she packed her family’s belongings.
“I’m not sure what to do. Where is safe?” she asked.
Israel had issued no warning of an impending strike on Ramlet Al Bayda. Just hours earlier, the corniche had the atmosphere of a jovial Ramadan night, as displaced families ate, smoked shisha, drank coffee and socialised while their children played.
The Israeli army did not provide an explanation for why it struck an area populated by displaced families.
The Lebanese government says more than 800,000 people have been displaced by Israeli strikes on parts of Lebanon as war continues to rage between Israel and Hezbollah. The actual number is likely higher, as many people seek refuge with relatives or rent apartments in supposedly safer areas, rather than register for government assistance. Hundreds of schools have been converted into temporary shelters, quickly reaching capacity as Lebanon struggles to cope with the displacement crisis. Many families have been forced to sleep on the streets of the capital during Ramadan, with nowhere to go.
More than 600 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war resumed on March 2, according to the health ministry – with at least 83 children killed during the first week of fighting.
Aseel Dalleh, a mother of 10 in her 40s, told The National how her husband was one of the first people to help the injured after the first strike in Ramlet Al Bayda. She tried to approach the site as well, but her teenaged son grabbed her and flung her away at the last moment. Seconds later, a second projectile struck, sending shrapnel flying into her husband’s shoulder, arm and chest, filling one of his lungs with blood. He is now in hospital.
“He’s my support in this life,” she said, still in shock. “If they struck here, then nowhere is safe.”
Aseel sat by the side of the road with her children and sister-in-law, their belongings piled around them. Unsure of what to do next, she decided to make some Turkish coffee over her portable gas stove as she spoke.
“They’re hitting civilians,” she said. “I’m not scared for myself, I’m scared for my kids. We can run but if they’re striking wherever – what about my children?”
Her sister-in-law, Linda Habash, held her three-month-old son, Amir, to her chest. After 10 days sleeping outside in the winter chill, the infant had developed a cold.
First they would go to the hospital to check on Aseel’s husband. After that, they did not know where to go.
