Shelters crowded in Sidon after Israeli evacuation warning
The city of Sidon on southern Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast was crowded with freshly displaced people Thursday after the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning two days earlier for residents of the city of Tyre, farther south on the coast, and nearby villages and Palestinian refugee camps.
The Lebanese University campus in Sidon opened its doors to people displaced from the Tyre district, initially without any supplies.
“Unfortunately, we had to accommodate them without mattresses or blankets” at first, said Saad Ghazzawi, a shelter organizer.
Batoul Shamseddine, who fled the Tyre area, said after receiving the warning, “we immediately packed whatever we could and ran out to the street. ... We found people everywhere out in the streets, everything was in chaos, like the Day of Judgment.”
More than 1 million people have been displaced in Lebanon by the renewed war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Source: Associated Press
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