Vancouver's Lebanese community fears for loved ones as war spreads in the Middle East

B.C. residents with family in Lebanon say they are watching the escalating conflict in the Middle East with fear, as Israeli airstrikes and evacuation orders push more civilians from their homes and deepen worries that ordinary people will once again bear the cost of war. 

It comes after the U.S. and Israeli attacks against Iran killed the country’s clerical ruler, Ali Khamenei, a week ago. The Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah then fired rockets and drones from Lebanon into Israel.

Israel retaliated with a wave of airstrikes across southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has called on the international community to help stop the attacks, saying Lebanon "did not choose this war."

For Vancouver artist Marie Khouri, the scenes unfolding in Lebanon bring back memories of a war she fled about 50 years ago.

Khouri left the country in 1975 after civil war broke out, and she says the violence she witnessed as a teenager has stayed with her ever since.

"My father was assassinated in Lebanon … and I saw things at the age of 14, 15, that I should have never witnessed," she said.

Khouri says her sister and brother-in-law are safe for now in Lebanon, but she is deeply worried about what comes next.

"A month ago, who would have thought that the Middle East would be in flames again like it is today?" she said. "I’m very scared."

She said war leaves damage that lasts long after the bombing stops.

"Behind every death, there’s a father, a mother, a shattered family, there’s a loss," she said. "It’s going to take years to reconstitute."

Nicholas Kahwaji, Lebanon’s honorary consul in Vancouver, said many Lebanese British Columbians are anxiously checking on relatives who are moving from place to place under repeated evacuation orders.

"The main concern is where are these families? Are they still alive? Are they able to go to a safe area?" Kahwaji added.

"You have over half a million people displaced in a few days," he said. "The shelters are saturated. I don’t know if there’s enough food for these people."