As war looms over Lebanon, refugees wonder how they will survive
Al Jazeera
Syrians and Sudanese nationals are trapped between war raging in their own countries and a war looming over Lebanon.
Beirut, Lebanon – In 2014, the Syrian regime fired a missile that struck Alaa’s apartment building in Aleppo, Syria. Thirteen-year-old Alaa and his family – mother, father and two sisters – survived the blast and fled to Lebanon.
Today, Alaa is a hairdresser in Beirut and worries about having to go through another war as tensions rise between the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Israel.
“A war would affect everyone here: Lebanese and Syrian,” Alaa told Al Jazeera outside a barbershop in Hamra, a bustling neighbourhood in West Beirut. “If it happens, it happens. I live day by day.”
Alaa is one of millions of refugees and migrants who have found a haven in Lebanon, far from their war-torn homelands. Most keep a low profile and try to eke out a meagre living.
Several Syrian and Sudanese nationals told Al Jazeera they are aware that Lebanon could soon be the theatre of a wider conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
