Lebanon’s displaced begin to return home, but some have nowhere to go

Beirut, Lebanon – There are only a few dozen blue tents remaining near Beirut’s waterfront, a far cry from the hundreds that have sheltered Lebanon’s displaced in recent months.

The agreement to end the war between the United States and Iran – which ostensibly includes an end to Israel’s strikes on Lebanon – has encouraged thousands of Lebanese to start returning to their homes in areas, primarily in the south of the country, that bore the brunt of the attacks.

As the midday sun beat down on a car park where a few tents still stood, a mother from Nabi Chit, a village in eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, walked towards a neighbour’s tent so she could fill up a bottle of water.

A battle in March between Israeli troops and local residents killed more than 40 people in Nabi Chit. The woman, who asked that her name be withheld, and her daughter first fled their home for Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh. Then they moved to Beirut’s waterfront, directly facing a luxury shopping area, about a month ago.

She said that a lot of people had left the camp in recent days. Those who stayed – like her – mostly have nowhere to go. Her home was destroyed and she didn’t want to be a burden to others by staying in their houses.

Left behind

Israel’s second military intensification in Lebanon in under two years began on March 2, just hours after Hezbollah fired six rockets at Israel. Hezbollah was responding to months of unanswered Israeli aggression and more than 10,000 violations of the 2024 ceasefire, as well as the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just two days earlier.

Since March 2, Israel has killed at least 4,247 people and wounded more than 12,000. It has also invaded Lebanon, razing villages and displacing more than 1.2 million people, some multiple times.

People were forced to find refuge wherever they could, including schools that the Lebanese government turned into makeshift shelters and the Beirut Sports City Stadium, on the southern periphery of Beirut.

But since the signing of the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States on June 17 – and the framework agreement signed by Israel and Lebanon on Friday – many centres for the displaced have emptied as people try to return home, with the expectation that the worst of the violence has stopped.

A few, however, have been left behind.

Ali Saleh, 55, is from Jwaya in southern Lebanon. He fled on March 2 and eventually found his way to the Beirut Sports City Stadium.

Ali told Al Jazeera that many displaced people had left the stadium to try and return home. But he was forced to stay in Beirut because his house was destroyed.

Back at Beirut’s waterfront, Rami Mustafa explained that he had been renting a house in Choueifat, in Beirut’s southern suburbs. But he left when the war started and he lost his income, forcing him to come to the waterfront with his wife and three kids.

Rami said he was a security guard and a car mechanic previously. Finding similar jobs won’t be easy – the war shut down many businesses and forced him to stay in a tent at the waterfront until he can earn enough to leave.

“I need to work for a month or so [to save enough money] before I can go rent a house again,” Rami said.

Closer to home

Some have decided to leave the areas they’ve been displaced to, even if they can’t get all the way home to their towns and villages in southern Lebanon.

Hussein, a father from the southern town of Qlaileh, was displaced at a school in Tyre for most of the war. He went to check on his home during a lull in the fighting in April and found it destroyed. He told Al Jazeera that he’d gone to his village to salvage what he could.

Israeli attacks over the last week have been significantly less frequent than before. But they have not completely ceased. On Thursday, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported the killing of three people by an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the Nabatieh region. In the town of Ain Arab, part of the Marjayoun region, Israeli troops set fire to homes, On Friday, two people were reported to have been killed in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, while another person was killed in the same area in an Israeli attack on Saturday.

Some southerners whose homes were destroyed told Al Jazeera that they plan to return to their hometowns and set up tents there, while others say they will find houses to rent.

But Israel continues to occupy many villages in the military zone it has established behind the so-called “Yellow Line”, which extends roughly 10 kilometres into Lebanon. Those villagers are unable to return, even if their homes are still standing.

Return or continued displacement

As some villagers return to their homes, the issue of reconstruction still hangs over Lebanon. The Lebanese government has said the return to border villages and reconstruction are key issues in direct negotiations with Israel – the latest round of talks are this week. There are still no details over when the framework agreement signed by Israel and Lebanon will allow rebuilding work to begin.

After the 2024 ceasefire, thousands of people returned to their homes and spent their savings to rebuild or repair them. Many of them have since had their homes damaged or destroyed again.

Lebanon’s Finance Minister, Yassine Jaber, said that while assessments are ongoing, the country had sustained “no less” than $3-4bn in damages since March. That is in addition to the $7bn estimated cost of damage from Israel’s war on Lebanon between October 2023 and November 2024.

Back by Beirut’s waterfront, the woman from Nabi Chit fiddled with the empty water bottle. A few minutes earlier, some in neighbouring tents said a man had come by to tell the displaced that they’d have to leave the area soon.

Others in the waterfront encampment said they weren’t willing to leave their tents.

When asked why they won’t leave, some said they didn’t want to go to overcrowded centres where their children would have to sleep in rooms with people they didn’t know.

The woman said a lot of people would refuse to go. But she did ask about the conditions at the Sports City Stadium and another camp in the Karantina neighbourhood, in an eastern suburb of Beirut.

“We get no help here,” she said. For a while, people would come to the waterfront to pass out food and water, but much of that aid has dried up the longer the war has dragged on. Many of the displaced complained that there was nowhere for them to use the bathroom.

“It’d be nice to go to a place with a bathroom,” the woman said.