According to the American newspaper Washington Post (WP), nightclubs and empty apartments in Lebanon are overflowing with those displaced by the Israeli occupation. Due to inadequate capacity of government-established shelters, Beirut’s legendary Skybar nightclub opened its doors to the displaced population. Around 20% of Lebanon’s population, totaling 1.2 million people, were displaced due to Israel’s air strikes and ground operations. The Washington Post (WP) highlighted the migration conditions that the Lebanese people are struggling to cope with.
The famous nightclub Skybar in Beirut opened its doors to the displaced citizens.
Gaelle Irani, the operator of Skybar, stated that they transformed the venue into a shelter, saying, “The business has made a 180-degree turn.” The operator mentioned that they divided the dance floor into sections, with women, children, and elderly individuals sleeping inside at night while young men slept outside. The government opened 973 shelters nationwide, but with almost 180,000 Lebanese people staying in them, the capacity has been reached.
The report suggested that Israel’s bombardments have also skyrocketed rental prices. Some landlords have demanded a year’s rent in advance, while others have been researching tenants’ backgrounds to ensure they have no connections to Hezbollah. Families in Beirut’s southern suburbs fled their apartments, taking whatever they could carry with them.
According to researchers at the American University of Beirut, more than 31% of the luxurious vacant buildings in the capital had no occupants. These buildings, once symbols of the country’s financial collapse, now represent the growing forced migration crisis.
The Washington Post reported that in some apartments, nearly 40 people are living together. For hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon, life changed overnight with the ground operation of the longstanding border conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. Around 1.2 million people – roughly 20% of the population – were displaced due to Israel’s air strikes and advancing ground occupation.