BEIRUT, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- Samira Abu Ali, a 56-year-old Syrian woman taking refuge in southern Lebanon, was displaced once again after the confrontation intensified between Israel and Hezbollah along the border since early October.
To escape the constant bombardment, Abu Ali abandoned her tent in al-Wazzani village near the borderline and relocated to a construction site in the Marj Al-Zuhur village in the Nabatieh governorate, further north of the border.
Taking shelter in a dark room with her five children with no living necessities, Abu Ali said, "We would have never thought of leaving our tent in al-Wazzani if the bombing in southern Lebanon had not escalated to kill and wound civilians."
Around 10,000 out of the 86,000 displaced Syrians residing in southern Lebanon have left border villages and towns, with some seeking shelter at their relatives' houses or tents in southern Nabatieh and Tyre governorates, Talal Al-Halabi, head of the Lebanese Red Cross Disaster Management Committee in Nabatieh, told Xinhua.
Like Abu Ali, many of the Syrians failed to find proper shelters and some even got into worse scenarios.
Samir Hassan, in his sixties, escaped Lebanon's southeast town of Shebaa on his motorcycle with his family of four and arrived at the eastern Lebanese town of Rashaya, only to find that he was not allowed to stay there as the Lebanese interior minister in early October ordered municipalities to stop receiving new displaced Syrians.
Lebanese officials have repeatedly insisted on returning Syrian refugees to their homeland, saying the large number of Syrian refugees weighed heavily on Lebanon's already fragile economy and infrastructure.
Abu Jihad, a sergeant in Lebanon's eastern camp of Bar Elias, said displaced Syrians do not have financial means to rent houses and are often not welcomed in many places. These challenges forced many Syrians to stay in border villages despite the heavy bombardment.
Ibrahim al-Ahmad, a 60-year-old displaced Syrian in the Sarda camp in southeast Lebanon, told Xinhua he prepared along with his three children several deep holes next to their tent which they hoped could serve as a shelter for them when artillery shelling comes.
The Lebanon-Israel border has been witnessing increased tensions for over six weeks after Hezbollah fired dozens of rockets toward Israel on Oct. 8 in support of the Hamas attack on Israel the previous day. Israeli forces responded by firing heavy artillery at several areas in southeastern Lebanon.
A Lebanese military source said a total of 125 people, including Hezbollah fighters and civilians, have been killed in Lebanon as of Friday. ■
