The war in Gaza long felt personal for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Now they're living it

SEBLINE, Lebanon (AP) — The war in Gaza was always personal for many Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

Many live in camps set up after 1948, when their parents or grandparents fled their homes in land that became Israel, and they have followed a year's worth of news of destruction and displacement in Gaza with dismay.

While Israeli air strikes in Lebanon have killed a few figures from Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, the camps that house many of the country's approximately 200,000 refugees felt relatively safe for the general population.

That has changed.

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled as Israel has launched an offensive in Lebanon against Hezbollah amid an ongoing escalation in the war in the Middle East. For many, it feels as if they are living the horrors they witnessed on their screens.

Manal Sharari, from the Rashidiyeh refugee camp near the southern coastal city of Tyre, used to try to shield her three young daughters from images of children wounded and killed in the war in Gaza even as she followed the news “minute by minute.”

In recent weeks, she couldn't shield them from the sounds of bombs dropping nearby.

“They were afraid and would get anxious every time they heard the sound of a strike,” Sharari said.

Four days ago, the Israeli military issued a warning to residents of the camp to evacuate as it launched a ground incursion into southern Lebanon — similar to the series of evacuation orders that have sent residents of Gaza fleeing back and forth across the enclave for months.

Sharari and her family also fled. They are now staying in a vocational training center-turned-displacement shelter run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the town of Sebline, 55 km (34 mi) to the north. Some 1,400 people are staying there.

Mariam Moussa, from the Burj Shamali camp, also near Tyre, fled with her extended family about a week earlier when strikes began falling on the outskirts of the camp.

Before that, she said, “we would see the scenes in Gaza and what was happening there, the destruction, the children and families. And in the end, we had to flee our houses, same as them.”

Israeli officials have said the ground offensive in Lebanon and the week of heavy bombardment that preceded it aim to push Hezbollah back from the border and allow residents of northern Israel to return to their homes.

The Lebanese militant group began launching rockets into Israel in support of its ally, Hamas, one day after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led incursion into southern Israel and ensuing Israeli offensive in Gaza.

Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling, and the two sides were quickly locked into a monthslong, low-level conflict that has escalated sharply in recent weeks.

Lebanese officials say that more than 1 million people have been displaced. Palestinian refugees are a relatively small but growing proportion. At least three camps — Ein el Hilweh, el Buss and Beddawi — have been directly hit by airstrikes, while others have received evacuation warnings or have seen strikes nearby.

Dorothee Klaus, UNRWA’s director in Lebanon, said around 20,000 Palestinian refugees have been displaced from camps in the south.

UNRWA was hosting around 4,300 people — including Lebanese citizens and Syrian refugees as well as Palestinians — in 12 shelters as of Thursday, Klaus said, “and this is a number that is now steadily going to increase.”

The agency is preparing to open three more shelters if needed, Klaus said.

“We have been preparing for this emergency for weeks and months,” she said.

Outside of the center in Sebline, where he is staying, Lebanese citizen Abbas Ferdoun has set up a makeshift convenience store out of the back of a van. He had to leave his own store outside of the Burj Shemali camp behind and flee two weeks ago, eventually ending up at the shelter.

“Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians, we’re all in the same situation,” Ferdoun said.

In Gaza, U.N. centers housing displaced people have themselves been targeted by strikes, with Israeli officials claiming that the centers were being used by militants. Some worry that pattern could play out again in Lebanon.

Hicham Kayed, deputy general coordinator with Al-Jana, the local NGO administering the shelter in Sebline, said he felt the international “response to the destruction of these facilities in Gaza was weak, to be honest," so “fear is present” that they might be similarly targeted in Lebanon.

Sharari said she feels safe for now, but she remains anxious about her father and others who stayed behind in the camp despite the warnings — and about whether she will have a home to return to.

She still follows the news obsessively but now, she said, “I’m following what’s happening in Gaza and what’s happening in Lebanon.”

A displaced woman reads a Quran, the Muslim holy book, at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people sit at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A displaced woman sits with her daughters at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the southern town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people sit at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the southern town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced children play games on their mobile phone at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the southern town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Turkeya Mohammed hangs her family's laundry at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the southern town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people sit at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the southern town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Displaced people sit at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the southern town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A displaced woman sits with her daughter at a vocational training center run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in the southern town of Sebline, south of Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, after fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon on Saturday, hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs with a dozen airstrikes and striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north for the first time as it targeted both Hezbollah and Hamas fighters.

Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict in the region, while rallies were held around the world marking the approaching anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.

Israel's attack on the Beddawi camp near Lebanon's northern city of Tripoli killed an official with Hamas’ military wing along with his wife and two young daughters, the Palestinian militant group said. Hamas later said another military wing member was killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.

Israel’s military said it killed two senior officials with Hamas’ military wing in Lebanon, where fighting has escalated in recent weeks. Israel has killed several Hamas officials there since the Israel-Hamas war began , in addition to most of the top leadership of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Plumes of smoke dominated the skyline over Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah commanders and military equipment and aims to drive the militant group away from shared borders.

At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, paramedics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from homes in less than two weeks.

The Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians. Hezbollah and Israel's military have traded fire almost daily.

Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and others. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in the intense ground clashes that Israel says have killed 250 Hezbollah fighters.

Israel's military on Saturday said about 90 projectiles were fired from Lebanon into Israeli territory. Most were intercepted, but several fell in the northern Arab town of Deir al-Asad, where police said three people were lightly injured.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told reporters in Damascus that “we are trying to reach a cease-fire in Gaza and in Lebanon.” The minister did not name the countries putting forward initiatives, saying they include regional states and some outside the Middle East.

Araghchi spoke a day after the supreme leader of Iran praised its recent missile strikes on Israel and said it was ready to do it again if necessary.

At least six people were killed in more than a dozen Israeli airstrikes overnight and into Saturday, according to the National News Agency, a Lebanese state-run new outlet.

Nearly 375,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria, fleeing Israeli strikes, in less than two weeks, according to a Lebanese government committee.

Associated Press journalists saw thousands of people continuing to cross the Masnaa Border Crossing on foot, even after Israeli airstrikes left huge craters in the road leading to it on Thursday. Much of Hezbollah’s weaponry is believed to come from Iran through Syria.

The Israeli military said special forces were carrying out targeted ground raids against Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon, destroying missiles, launchpads, watchtowers and weapons storage facilities. It said troops dismantled tunnel shafts that Hezbollah used to approach the Israeli border.

Palestinian medical officials said Israeli strikes in northern and central Gaza on Saturday killed at least nine people.

One in the northern town of Beit Hanoun killed at least five people, including two children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Another hit a house in the Nuseirat refugee camp, killing at least four, the Awda hospital said.

The Israeli military did not have any immediate comment but has long accused Hamas of operating from within civilian areas.

An Israeli airstrike killed two children in Gaza City’s Zaytoun neighborhood, according to the civil defense first responders’ group that operates under the Hamas-run government.

Israel's military warned Palestinians to evacuate along the strategic Netzarim corridor in central Gaza, which was at the heart of obstacles to a cease-fire deal. The military told people in parts of the Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps to evacuate to Muwasi, a coastal area that the military has designated a humanitarian zone.

It’s unclear how many Palestinians are in the areas ordered evacuated.

Almost 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the nearly year-long war, according to the Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths. Almost 90% of Gaza's residents are now displaced, amid widespread destruction.

Mroue and El Deeb reported from Beirut, Lebanon.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

A firefighter works to extinguish a fire after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit an area next to a road near Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Smoke rises from a fire in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A firefighter works to extinguish a fire after a rocket, fired from Lebanon, hit an area next to a road near Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, in northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Smoke rises following Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

An Israeli Apache helicopter fires a missile towards southern Lebanon as seen from northern Israel, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)