In photos: Shelters, streets, and survival, Lebanon’s displacement crisis

A visual exploration of fragility and resilience, capturing the human moments that persist amid displacement and uncertainty.

Annahar

In photos: Shelters, streets, and survival, Lebanon’s displacement crisis

A displaced girl hangs laundry at one of the displacement centers in Beirut.

Three displaced women sitting in a Beirut displacement center.

Two displaced people trying to keep warm in cold weather.

Woman carrying her child outside a displacement center in Beirut.

A displaced person has turned his car into a home and shelter.

A displaced woman sitting outside her tent in Beirut.

Displaced women preparing food in a shelter.

The Sports City, which has been turned into a shelter for displaced people.

A displaced woman sitting near her tent at the Sports City.

Street barbering during displacement times.

These photos are not merely a documentation of the displacement that began with the outbreak of war between Israel and “Hezbollah” after the death of Iranian guide Ali Khamenei, but rather an attempt to capture a fragile human moment where the ordinary becomes luxury and the obvious turns into a wish.

A woman sits near a tent… she waits for no one, but for what remains of certainty.
A child stretches out his hands toward a small warmth, as if trying to keep a piece of the world alive within him.
And in a corner of a shelter, another child writes on a blackboard, as if the letters are the last thing that can be saved from collapse.

Estimates indicate that over one million Lebanese were displaced in a short period, including around 350,000 children who suddenly found themselves outside their homes, outside their schools, outside everything that resembled stability.

Inside, life is crowded.
Shelter centers no longer suffice, and rooms that were once classrooms have become homes for entire families.
Women cook with whatever is available, preserving the essence of home, even in its most minimal form.
Faces show exhaustion, yet the effort to overcome a sense of defeat persists.

According to data, more than 136,000 displaced people live in roughly 35,000 families across 375 collective shelter centers. But the broader reality is harsher: about 85% of the displaced remain outside any organized relief system.

They are scattered across hosting homes, temporary rentals, flimsy tents, and even inside their cars.

This photo essay is not about the war…
but about the people trying to live after it—or even during it.
About fragility that can be seen with the eye,
and resilience that is unspoken, yet captured.

Colleagues Nabil Ismail and Houssam Chbaro documented scenes of displacement.