Thousands flock to hills, parks and schools, but no place safe from bombs

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Jonathan Steele in Beirut
Thursday July 20, 2006
The Guardian

In small pockets of misery and distress tucked away across Beirut, thousands of Lebanese refugees are sheltering from Israel's relentless bombing.

Up to half a million people have been displaced throughout Lebanon, according to according to Roberto Laurenti, the Beirut representative of the United Nations Children's Fund, sparking a humanitarian disaster.

For many refugees to Beirut the first port of call is Sanayeh, a once attractive park no bigger than a London garden square. Two hundred people slept on the grass there last night. Another 4,800, including about 950 babies less than two years old, who arrived over the past few days have been sent to 28 Beirut schools which have opened their doors. Thousands more people from the south have moved to friends and relatives or rented flats. Many are in other towns or in villages in the mountains, well away from the border, though nowhere in Lebanon is entirely safe.


more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1824551,00.html