People fleeing Israeli bombardment in Lebanon, unload their belongings from a van to continue their journey on foot along a road damaged by an Israeli strike, in the area of Masnaa on the Lebanese side of the border crossing with Syria, on Oct. 4, 2024. (Credit: Hassan Jarrah/AFP)
On Sept. 24, in a bid to escape a suddenly and rapidly widening war, Mahasen Deeb took her five children to a bus stop in Sour, hoping to find a way to Beirut. She couldn't believe it when the driver told her the fare — $70 a ticket. “There is no way I would have been able to afford that,” she says.She stood there, stunned. He must have sensed her distress and told her that political parties and well-off Southerners are covering people’s fares. “Wait a bit,” he said.So Deeb and her children waited. Forty minutes later, the driver returned. Ten seats on his van had been paid for and the family could take the six they needed.“I didn't ask him who had paid,” she says. “I didn't have the energy, I just wanted to get myself and my kids out of the South.”The morning before, as Israel launched one of the most intense bombing campaigns of the...
On Sept. 24, in a bid to escape a suddenly and rapidly widening war, Mahasen Deeb took her five children to a bus stop in Sour, hoping to find a way to Beirut. She couldn't believe it when the driver told her the fare — $70 a ticket. “There is no way I would have been able to afford that,” she says.She stood there, stunned. He must have sensed her distress and told her that political parties and well-off Southerners are covering people’s fares. “Wait a bit,” he said.So Deeb and her children waited. Forty minutes later, the driver returned. Ten seats on his van had been paid for and the family could take the six they needed.“I didn't ask him who had paid,” she says. “I didn't have the energy, I just wanted to get myself and my kids out of the South.”The morning before, as Israel launched one of the most intense bombing...