Beirut, Lebanon – When Israel and Hezbollah agreed to end the war on Wednesday, Adnan Zaid breathed a sigh of relief.
He and his family had been up all night because of the Israeli typhoon that hit the Lebanese capital.
Fears eased after the ceasefire was expected to go into effect at 4am, but concerns about the future were raised.
“Honestly, I worry that something will happen,” Zaid told Al Jazeera. “I doubt the ceasefire will last.”
Zaid is one of about 650 people who have fled their homes to a hostel run by an aid group in Karantina, a low-income neighborhood in Beirut.
He is not the only one who has mixed feelings about the current cessation of hostilities and doubts whether it will be safe to go home.
Many are eager to rebuild their lives, but others do not want to return to war-torn areas where homes and livelihoods have been destroyed and all security is gone.
“All the doors and windows are broken in my house. The roof has fallen in, and debris from the explosion has covered the interior,” said Zaid.
“We cannot go back now. We need time to prepare the place. It will take five or six days to see if our house is habitable. “
Don’t want to leave
Israel and Hezbollah began fighting on October 8, 2023, when the Lebanese group escalated a small exchange of fire across the Israel-Lebanon border in cooperation with the people of Gaza, who were enduring Israeli bombardment.
Hezbollah has promised to stop if Israel ends its war against the besieged areas, which began after Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Instead, Israel increased its non-aligned threats against Hezbollah and announced the invasion of southern Lebanon at the end of September.
Mohamad Kenj, 22, does not want to return to his house, which has been destroyed but is still alive.
The Israeli campaign, he said, had destroyed all forms of cultural and commercial activity in his neighborhood of Dahiyeh, a densely populated south Beirut district affiliated with Hezbollah.
“Even if I can fix my room and fix my house, there is no life there,” Kenj told Al Jazeera from the cramped quarters in Karantina where he lived with his father.
But Kenj knows that he will come back sometime because he has nowhere else to go.
Karantina volunteers hope to keep the shelter open for several weeks. They depends on the number of migrant families returning home in the coming days and if it ends.
They said that the local municipalities will make the final decision, and there are no official announcements so far.
Going home
As soon as the Israeli warplanes and airplanes left Beirut, many families in Karantina started packing their belongings.
By noon on Wednesday, about half of the building was empty, and many people were preparing to leave.
Fatima Haidar, 38, was in her room packing clothes, pots, pans and blankets into suitcases.
The divorced mother of five said she came to Karantina with her mother and relatives a few days after Israel dropped 80 bombs on Dahiyeh on September 27 to kill her. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli attack forced many people to leave Dahiyeh and forced Haidar and his family to sleep on the streets as many government buildings were overcrowded. Then he heard that there is a place in Karantina.
For several weeks, he would go to Dahiyeh to visit their home and look forward to returning.
But it was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike a day before the end of the war. The walls, he said, were crumbling, broken glass and debris covered their home.
“We are happy that the war is over, but our house is destroyed,” Haidar said.
Although this moment is painful, Haidar refuses to stay away from his community and insists that they will rebuild their lives.
“We don’t know where we’re going, but we’re not staying here.”
Grief and loss
Israel stepped up its shelling of Beirut on Tuesday night, hours before the ceasefire was due to begin.
Kenj’s cousin Mohammed was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Bashoura, a densely populated area within the city. He survived the entire battle, but was killed in his last hours.
“My mother went today to the funeral to pay her respects and mourn her,” he told Al Jazeera. “I wish I knew him, but he was older than me.” [wife and children who survived the strike]and we didn’t get along very well.”
Kenj is still dealing with grief after the death of a family member and finding a home and security.
Unlike previous conflicts between Hezbollah and Israel, he does not believe the latest one can be described as a success.
“We are crying and suffering. Anyone who tells you that we have won is lying,” he told Al Jazeera, describing what happens at the shelter.
Ayat Mubarak, 64, said his family’s situation is very different from the 2006 war.
Although they had lost their home, their hearts were high because they believed that Hezbollah had won. This time, he doesn’t really believe it.
After smoking a cigarette, Mubarak added that her husband was going to Dahiyeh to check if their house was safe. He hopes it will make him come back.
“If my husband tells us that our house is finished, then that is God’s plan,” she said while leaving work.
“God writes the destiny of each of us.”
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