The mother of newborn twins sheltering in a refugee camp in Lebanon said she had been told to evacuate her home ahead of a planned attack by Israeli forces. “My house was bombed and everything I had prepared for my children was gone,” she told the BBC.
Ghada is one of more than a million refugees in Lebanon as Israel continues to step up its attacks against the militant group Hezbollah. She now sleeps with her babies and 2,000 other children in a converted university shelter in the southern city of Sidon.
Sidon, Lebanon’s third-largest city and known as the gateway to southern Lebanon, has accounted for a significant portion of the refugees from the war. Many of the families who arrived there came from parts of Lebanon where Hezbollah enjoys significant support.
In March, Defense Minister Israel Katz said a buffer zone would be established in southern Lebanon and that Israel would maintain security control over parts of the country. He also said all houses in Lebanese villages near the Israeli border would be demolished.
Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Iran’s top leader at the start of the Iran war. Israel responded by sending ground troops to Lebanon and launching attacks across the country, and Hezbollah continued to fire rockets at Israel. Israel has carried out almost daily airstrikes against Hezbollah across Lebanon despite a ceasefire agreed to in 2024, accusing the group of trying to restore its military strength.
