Ibrahim Mahbouba, a Lebanese displaced from the southern suburbs of Beirut, looks at the capital from the village of Aley, on Aug. 9, 2024. (Credit: Matthieu Karam/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT – On the top floor of a residential building tucked away in the Aley valley, Ibrahim Mahbouba, a man in his sixties with slicked-back gray hair, entertains guests as his grandchildren play around the living room in the apartment he’s recently rented with his family of eight."We came here on Aug. 3. If we didn't have children, we wouldn't have left," says the resident of Beirut’s southern suburbs, who kept smiling — albeit nervously — despite everything.Mahbouba is paying $1,000 a month for a 120 square meters apartment, utilities included, and says he’s already paid rent up-front for the next three months. “It’s a bit expensive, but safety comes first,” he admits.Like others in the area, he decided to temporarily leave the southern suburbs of Beirut (a predominantly Shiite neighborhood and a Hezbollah stronghold) in the aftermath...
BEIRUT – On the top floor of a residential building tucked away in the Aley valley, Ibrahim Mahbouba, a man in his sixties with slicked-back gray hair, entertains guests as his grandchildren play around the living room in the apartment he’s recently rented with his family of eight."We came here on Aug. 3. If we didn't have children, we wouldn't have left," says the resident of Beirut’s southern suburbs, who kept smiling — albeit nervously — despite everything.Mahbouba is paying $1,000 a month for a 120 square meters apartment, utilities included, and says he’s already paid rent up-front for the next three months. “It’s a bit expensive, but safety comes first,” he admits.Like others in the area, he decided to temporarily leave the southern suburbs of Beirut (a predominantly Shiite neighborhood and a Hezbollah stronghold)...