When Israel abruptly ordered people to evacuate from Beirut’s southern outskirts on Thursday, a bustling district of markets and apartment towers was transformed into a scene of mass exodus.
Residents of the area known as Dahiya, a Hezbollah stronghold, were ordered to move east and north. Soon after, the neighborhood endured a night of heavy Israeli bombardment, with blasts that shook the walls and jolted residents across the city, continuing through Friday.
The evacuation order had rippled through Dahiya like a shock wave on Thursday, causing businesses to shutter and sending families into the streets with armfuls of hastily gathered belongings.
Many were unsure where they would end up that night, and some strapped mattresses to their car roofs. Residents streamed between the dense traffic, carrying plastic bags bulging with clothes, documents and mementos of home.
“We civilians are paying for the price of war,” said Mohamed Hjoula, 35, standing on Beirut’s waterfront promenade, where he had taken refuge with about 40 members of his family, including his ailing parents.
Mr. Hjoula said he learned on Friday afternoon that his home in Dahiya had been destroyed by airstrikes. “We are feeling so much pain,” he said.
Hezbollah fired rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel on Monday, and Israel retaliated with full force, attacking what it said were Hezbollah targets around the country as the hum of its drones filled the daytime skies.
The nights have been shattered by relentless bombardments, and more than 200 people have been killed in Lebanon so far, with almost 800 others wounded, the local health ministry said Friday.
An estimated 300,000 people have been displaced in the country since Israel began carrying out strikes and ordering mass evacuations this week, the Norwegian Refugee Council said.
The evacuation orders for Dahiya were followed by similar orders for parts of the eastern Bekaa Valley, another bastion of Hezbollah.
For many in Dahiya, the evacuation order upended their observance of the holy month of Ramadan, tearing them abruptly from the daily rhythms of breaking the fast and prayer.
Some said they had been displaced before, during clashes between Israel and Hezbollah more than a year ago. The two sides had agreed to a cease-fire in November 2024, but that broke down this week.
On Friday, many families had strung sheets together to pitch makeshift tents along the roadside. Some said they were turned away from government-run shelters because they were already full, and they did not know where to find food, water or diapers for their children.
Shefgar Othman, 32, said his brother had ventured back to Dahiya on Friday in order to retrieve some belongings from their home. Shortly after he got there, however, the bombing started again, and he had to flee, he said, returning empty-handed to their family of 10.
“We are stranded in the streets,” Mr. Othman said. Like many who had fled Dahiya, he said he and his family felt abandoned by the government, left to fend for themselves amid the bombardment.
Mr. Hjoula, on Beirut’s corniche, was particularly critical of Hezbollah, saying the group had drawn Dahiya into a war with little regard for the people living there.
Before fighting erupted on Monday, he said, he had hoped to support his parents and save enough money to buy his own apartment and find a bride — plans that now felt impossibly distant.
“My life here has failed,” Mr. Hjoula said, turning his ire on both Israel and Hezbollah. “They have taken us back a thousand years. They have taken us back to the Stone Age.”
For others fleeing the strikes, the worry extended beyond their own safety.
On Friday afternoon, Dahiya resident Zeinab Srour was in Martyrs’ Square, in downtown Beirut, carrying her two cats, Tuti and Virus, in separate pet carriers, and waiting to meet a contact from a pet shelter that would take them in.
One of the cats gave her an infectious kind of joy, Ms. Srour said, but with her family displaced, she could no longer care for them both, and hoped to find a safe place for them until she could return home.
“The sounds of bombings disturb them as much as they do us,” Ms. Srour, 23, said. “We hope this war won’t last long.”
Hwaida Saad and Sarah Chaayto contributed reporting.
Abdi Latif Dahir is a Middle East correspondent for The Times, covering Lebanon and Syria. He is based in Beirut.
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