500,000 Lebanese Now Refugees
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Two-month-old Zinab Asal is one of 500,000 Lebanese forced out of their homes and turned into refugees within their own country by Israel’s military assault.
She now lives in a baking hot, cramped Beirut city center schoolroom, along with 15 members of her family, without running water, food, or bedding.
But no matter how grim conditions are in Classroom no. 3 of the Zahir Kadura Secondary School, the members of the Asal family know they are lucky to have made it there alive.
The roads, hills, and pastures near their home village of Deba’al outside the southern city of Tyre have been turned into a killing zone for Israeli jets, attack helicopters, and artillery.
Yesterday Israel publicly announced that any truck or four-by-four traveling in the south of the country was considered a legitimate military target. Scores of refugees have already been killed as they fled in such vehicles.
