Listen to the audio:
Hello, I’m Laure Delacloche and I’m a journalist based in Lebanon. In September, ONE magazine assigned me a very underreported story to cover, taking place in the smallest Palestinian camp of Lebanon, which also happens to be the only Christian Palestinian camp. Lebanon hosts approximately 250,000 Palestinians, who primarily took shelter in the country after Israel expelled them from their lands in 1948.
The camp is located in Dbayeh, only 12 km north of the capital city, Beirut. Dbayeh is associated with wealth, hosting a marina bustling with luxury vessels and a massive five-star hotel called Le Royale overlooking the Mediterranean. Behind the hotel, in its shadow, four parallel streets make up the Dbayeh refugee camp.
I conducted interviews with the church organizations on the ground, with residents, with the priest and with various stakeholders. After a few days, I thought I knew what this story would be about: one of compounded crises from 1948 until today. Four generations of Christian Palestinians have since been living in limbo in Lebanon, waiting to return to Palestine, or to enjoy equal rights and opportunities in their host country.
I also intended to stress the impact of the economic crisis that started in 2019, which plunged most inhabitants of the camp — Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian alike — in extreme poverty. The last crisis I intended to mention in my story was the war of attrition between Hezbollah and Israel that started on October the 8, 2023, as some of the residents in the camp have family in Gaza.
I thought to myself: “This story is not immediately taking place in the context of war; however, it addresses its very roots by shedding light on the fate of displaced Palestinians in the country. Smart.”
And then, the world of the residents shattered. The world of the sisters in the camp shattered. The world of every Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Ethiopian, Filipino, Egyptian and other foreigner in the country shattered.
Because the Israeli army started its full-scale war in Lebanon on 23 September. Many Lebanese of the camp are originally from south Lebanon and were initially displaced during the civil war — and now their old wounds reopened. The same is happening to Palestinians with the additional worry of having, in most cases, relatives caught up in even more dire circumstances in Gaza or in the West Bank.
As for the Syrians living in the camp, they fled their country hoping for a more peaceful life for their children and are hearing bombardment and seeing missiles fall all over again in their host country. Although the Dbayeh camp is located in an area that, as of mid-October 2024, had not been targeted by Israeli strikes yet, the war hit the camp full force.
More than 90 displaced families have arrived seeking shelter, taken in by their relatives who already live in cramped housing with meager resources. The church organizations work quickly on the ground, distributing food, mattresses and clothes. But to be able to support this vulnerable community, their financial needs are growing exponentially.
Read “At an Impasse” in the December 2024 edition of ONE.