Beirut suburb Dahiyeh slowly returns as Israel-Hezbollah truce frays

Residents were easing back into Dahiyeh as the June 19 ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah held only precariously, with Israeli troops still on defensive orders and no full withdrawal from southern Lebanon. In Beirut’s southern suburbs, the return has been slow and reluctant, driven as much by necessity as by hope after months of upheaval and joblessness.

Dahiyeh, which simply means “the suburb” in Arabic, has long been one of Hezbollah’s strongest social and political bases. It has also been a repeated target in Israel’s wars with the group, including the 2006 Lebanon War, and it sits close to the corridor leading to Rafic Hariri International Airport.

The suburb was warned again and again this year. Israel ordered residents to evacuate on March 5, civilians fled after new threats on June 1, and Israeli airstrikes on June 7 killed two people and wounded 11. One resident captured the cost of that cycle in a few words: “This war has brought so much loss.”

Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research and the United Nations Development Programme estimated direct building damage across South Lebanon at about $1.38 billion, with 11,095 buildings completely destroyed and 17,891 housing units impacted. A UN-backed assessment put debris at roughly 649,000 cubic metres in one count and 3.1 million cubic metres in another rapid assessment.

UNHCR said the escalation that began March 2 forced families from more than 53 villages and densely populated areas to flee within minutes, while Reuters put the figure at more than 90,000 housing units damaged or destroyed across Lebanon between March 2 and June 12.