Born in south Lebanon, displaced to Beirut, two grandmothers mirror on Israeli invasions

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Mariam Allawiya and Kafa Wehbe sit on a sun-drenched balcony, smoking.

They each grew up amid olive groves in southern Lebanon. Allawiya’s son married Wehbe’s daughter. They’re grandmothers now.

However this isn’t how they anticipated to develop outdated: Squatting in a vacant constructing in central Beirut, displaced many instances.

But they conjure hospitality for visiting reporters, pull up a donated plastic chair, and unspool the tales of their lives — which additionally inform the historical past of southern Lebanon.

“What can I say? It’s all anxiety and war,” Allawiya, 60, says.

She and Wehbe, 67, are among the many multiple million individuals the Lebanese authorities says have been displaced by Israel’s present invasion, which started final month after Lebanese Hezbollah militants fired rockets into Israel. They mentioned they had been retaliating in opposition to U.S. and Israeli assaults on their benefactor, Iran, and for 15 months of Israeli assaults on Lebanon that continued after a earlier ceasefire in November 2024.

Now, with a recent ceasefire, each Israel and Hezbollah are warning displaced individuals to not return south. And Allawiya and Wehbe say they will keep put — it is too harmful.

This is not the primary time these grandmothers have needed to flee Israeli assaults.

Born within the south, displaced to Beirut, now fleeing once more

Allawiya was born within the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, close to the Israeli border. Israeli troops invaded in 1982, destroyed her household’s home, and occupied south Lebanon for 18 years after that. The Allawiya household fled north to Beirut, settling within the capital’s southern suburbs with different displaced Shia Muslims.

However they road-tripped house each summer time, and rebuilt their home — a labor of affection whereas beneath occupation, she says.

“Our village, our land, our houses, our trees, our olives, our apples — our soil,” Allawiya says wistfully.

“And also Israeli checkpoints and soldiers!” her pal Wehbe interrupts. “Back then you needed a permit to move around, like in the Palestinian Territories. We don’t want that again!”

“That’s why we support the resistance,” she declares.

By that, she means Hezbollah.

Why these grandmothers help Hezbollah

Hezbollah was based throughout that 1982 invasion. Again then, Israel was concentrating on Palestinian militants. However Hezbollah mentioned it was combating for the Lebanese, in opposition to overseas occupation, and endeared itself to individuals like Allawiya and Wehbe. It funded the reconstruction of hundreds of houses, typically with Iranian cash. And it celebrated victory when Israeli forces lastly withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.

“Oh how beautiful that moment was,” Allawiya remembers. “It was perfect.”

Nevertheless it was fleeting.

The Allawiya household by no means managed to maneuver house completely. Israeli troops invaded once more, in 2006 and 2024, in pursuit of Hezbollah militants, destroying the Allawiyas’ home every time.

They rebuilt after 2006 however did not have an opportunity to rebuild once more, for a 3rd time, earlier than final month’s invasion displaced them once more — this time from their condo in Beirut’s southern suburbs to this vacant constructing in a central a part of the town, which the owner supplied to displaced individuals. They’ve gone from one short-term house to a different.

Not everybody in Lebanon helps Hezbollah. Many blame the group for these successive wars. Wehbe says she worries a few of her fellow residents would possibly surrender the south — acquiesce to a different period of Israeli occupation — in trade for a ceasefire.

Regardless of the present ceasefire, Israel says its troops will proceed to carry Lebanese territory south of the nation’s Litani River, which runs 10 to twenty miles north of the present border, to create what it calls a buffer zone from which Hezbollah can now not fireplace rockets.

“How could the south not be part of Lebanon? It’s on our map!” Wehbe says. “If we could all just stand together, united against Israel, then Israel would leave us alone.”

She believes Hezbollah is her nation’s finest wager for getting Israeli troops to withdraw, since they did it earlier than, in 2000.

Sheltering with 35 kin — together with a pregnant lady and kids

Allawiya, Wehbe and 35 of their kin are all squatting on this vacant constructing collectively. On April 7, they stayed up all evening, awaiting the announcement of a ceasefire between america and Iran. They trusted early accounts from Pakistani mediators that the deal would come with Lebanon, and assumed that may imply Israeli assaults would finish and so they’d be allowed to go house.

“We were happy! We started cleaning, preparing to leave this place,” Allawiya remembers.

However her hopes had been dashed the following morning, on April 8, when Israel struck Lebanon 100 instances in 10 minutes — killing greater than 350 individuals, in keeping with Lebanese authorities. Lots of the strikes hit central Beirut — shaking the constructing the place the Allawiya and Wehbe households had been huddled.

Allawiya says that have makes her cautious of trusting in an Israel-Lebanon ceasefire, introduced by President Trump on April 16. So long as it is described as short-term — for 10 days, fairly than everlasting — she says it nonetheless feels too harmful to go house.

“To be honest, we don’t feel safe going back,” she says. “The Israelis may break their promise.”

Former neighbors, displaced like them, preserve calling. They’re attempting to determine if their houses in Beirut’s suburbs are nonetheless standing. The realm is house to a few of Hezbollah’s workplaces, and Israeli airstrikes have hit many instances.

Nevertheless it’s not that condo Allawiya is dreaming of. It is her household’s earlier house within the south, in Maroun al-Ras, which is now beneath Israeli management but once more. It is a part of the “buffer zone” Israel says it might maintain for months, even years.

Dreaming of rebuilding once more

Considered one of Allawiya’s tech-savvy children has made a video of their ancestral house, with a carousel of images from when it was nonetheless standing, set to a ballad written by an Egyptian singer, Sherine, about Israel’s 2006 invasion of Lebanon. It is known as “Lebanon within the Coronary heart.”

On this barren, borrowed, barely furnished condo, Allawiya hunches over her mobile phone, replaying this video time and again.

“Wake up, oh South! The sun is setting,” she mumbles the lyrics to the music. “Lebanon is in the heart.”

The chorus continues: “There is no one but us to protect our homeland.”

This renewed warfare has interrupted therapy Allawiya had been getting for most cancers. Considered one of her daughters-in-law is seven months pregnant. The grandchildren are bouncing off the partitions, with out college.

They can not keep on this donated condo eternally. However even with a ceasefire, they do not know when it will be secure to go house.