How a small Lebanese town became a haven from Israel’s war

Bar Elias, Lebanon – When Israel began carpet-bombing Lebanon in late September, Shifa struggled to console her three young children.

Her eldest, 12-year-old Raneem, was so frightened she couldn’t eat or sleep. She sobbed throughout the night as Israeli warplanes and drones thundered and buzzed over their home, Shifa said, huddled in her black abaya.

Sitting on a plastic chair, she spoke to Al Jazeera with Raneem next to her, while her two other children played behind them.

Leaning forward, Shifa recounted that, on September 25, Israel bombed the building across from their house in Ali el-Nahri, a village in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, about 35km (25 miles) from the capital, Beirut.

The blast shattered the glass in Shifa’s apartment and blew the doors off their hinges.

Her family survived, but her neighbours and relatives weren’t as lucky.

“We knew the martyrs: We lost my uncle and his family, our neighbours and the children of my siblings,” Shifa, 40, told Al Jazeera.

“We all wanted to check [if anyone we knew survived] from our neighbours and relatives, but [my husband] and I decided to take the children and flee right away,” she told Al Jazeera.

A pattern of generosity

Shifa, her husband Bilal, and their three children arrived at Bar Elias “by coincidence” after passing through several villages.

According to Shifa, they simply followed hundreds of displaced people who were fleeing in the direction of the Bekaa Valley’s largest Sunni Muslim town.

There, they found shelters opening and inhabitants donating personal belongings to newcomers.

The generosity wasn’t surprising, Bar Elias has a history of welcoming refugees.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 31,000 to 45,000 Syrian refugees have settled in Bar Elias after fleeing the civil war in their country, which erupted in 2011 after the Syrian government repressed a popular uprising.

In contrast, the town’s Lebanese population is between 60,000 to 70,000.

Now, thousands of people from Lebanon’s Shia heartlands – regions where the Hezbollah group draws most of its support – have found safety and support in Bar Elias.

Despite a ceasefire that came into effect on Wednesday morning, tens – even hundreds – of thousands of civilians may not be able to return home due to the deliberate destruction of their villages and way of life.

This means Bar Elias may be a new home for months – or years – until the displaced can return to their lands and rebuild their lives.

Bilal Mohamed Araji, headmaster of al-Amin Elementary School, says it is his moral duty to open the school’s doors to those fleeing Israel’s invasion [Philippe Pernot/Al Jazeera]

‘Moral obligation’

Shifa’s family settled in the al-Amin private school which was converted into a shelter shortly after Israel escalated its war on Lebanon.

“Helping people is our ethical, humanitarian and religious duty,” head teacher Bilal Mohamad Araji told Al Jazeera in his office.

Bar Elias, he said, is hosting about 5,850 newly displaced people, a figure he got from the local municipality. Of this number, about 190 are sheltering at his school.

Shifa and her family say they are comfortable here and treated well.

*Ali, a short bald man with grey stubble, is also sheltering in al-Amin and speaks highly about how welcoming people in Bar Elias and at the al-Amin school are.

The 65-year-old first fled with his wife from the southern governorate of Nabatieh in September.

He told Al Jazeera he used to have a big house and a steady job as a car salesman.

But when the war escalated, he sought refuge with his aunt, who lived in a nearby village. He, his wife and his aunt’s family all fled again three days later.

“I heard [from neighbours] that two or three days after we fled, my aunt’s house was bombed,” he said.

The extended family first headed to Chtoura, a transport hub in the Bekaa Valley, hoping to find help. There, Ali heard Bar Elias was accepting displaced families.

Other villages were less welcoming out of fear of being attacked by Israel for “hosting a Hezbollah operative”, a justification Israel has used after bombing homes all over Lebanon.

Araji doesn’t understand the panic. “The danger is everywhere, not just in Bar Elias. [Israel] is our enemy. Who knows [where] they will invade or hit next? Nobody knows,” he told Al Jazeera.

Tension and celebration

While Bar Elias has generously opened its arms to those in need, it does not have the resources to tend to everyone indefinitely.

The lack of support from the government – which is reeling from an acute economic crisis – and aid groups leads to petty disputes between displaced families, according to Zeinab Dirani, a local aid worker with Female, a grassroots feminist organisation in Lebanon

She added that some displaced families are more socially insulated than others, leading to friction and fights.

“Those who used to live in the south [may be] different from those [who came] from the north. There are differences in the way they may handle family issues … and some don’t allow their children to meet and see new people,” explained Dirani.

Zeinab Dirani visits al-Amin school to check on the displaced families. She lives nearby that in a village was heavily hit during Israel’s war on Lebanon [Philippe Pernot/Al Jazeera]

Many displaced families are now celebrating news of a ceasefire and the potential end to the war on their country, said Araji.

He told Al Jazeera that a few families have already left his school to return to their villages and he expects more to leave in the coming days.

“Thank God, people here are so happy right now,” he said.

“Everyone will now be able to return to their homes, God willing.”

Ali’s name was changed due to a request for anonymity