Batoul and her family are struggling to secure housing outside Beirut’s southern suburbs, where a senior Hezbollah commander was killed in an Israeli strike last week, but rising demand has caused prices to skyrocket.
Many people living in the southern suburbs – a dense residential area known as Dahiyah and also a Hezbollah stronghold – are trying to leave as they fear a full-blown war between the Iran-backed group and Israel following the commander’s killing.
“We are with the resistance (Hezbollah) until death,” said Batool, a 29-year-old journalist who declined to give his last name because the matter is sensitive.
“But it is normal to be afraid and seek safe shelter,” he told AFP.
Iran and its regional allies have vowed to avenge the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week, which has been blamed on Israel. The killing came just hours after Hezbollah’s top military commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli attack in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Hezbollah has been in an almost daily exchange of fire with Israeli forces in support of its ally Hamas since the war in Gaza began following an attack by the Palestinian militant group on Israel on October 7.
Following the double massacre, fears of a full-blown war have grown, with foreign airlines suspending flights to Beirut and countries urging their citizens to leave.
An Iranian adviser and five civilians – three women and two children – were also killed in last week’s Beirut attack.
“Anyone who says he wanted to be in Dahiyah during the bombing is lying to himself,” Batoul said.
‘no option’
On Tuesday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his Shiite Muslim movement and Iran were obliged to respond to Israel, no matter the consequences.
Batool said she had been trying unsuccessfully to rent a home in “safe areas” outside Beirut — areas not affiliated with Hezbollah — but that landlords were charging “exorbitant prices.”
He said a landlord suddenly cancelled the application even after he agreed to pay six months’ rent in advance for a flat in the hill town of Sofar.
A 55-year-old teacher and Hezbollah supporter, who requested anonymity because the matter is sensitive, said she felt lucky to have found a flat about 15 kilometers (nine miles) outside Beirut.
But it cost $1,500 a month in a country that has been struggling with an economic crisis for more than four years.
The teacher, who is himself a Dahiyah resident, said prices were increasing drastically, adding that another apartment was quoted online at $1,500 a month “but when we got there, they asked for $2,000”.
“They know we have no choice. When there is a war, people are willing to pay any amount to stay safe,” he said.
But, he added, “many people will stay in Dahiyeh because they cannot afford to pay rent.”
Riad Bou Fakhreddine, a broker who rents homes in the Mount Lebanon area near Beirut, said apartments sell out “within half an hour to an hour of being listed.”
He said some landlords have asked him to increase the price of apartments, which cost $500 per month, to up to $2,000.
He said he refused.
“I tell them I’m not going to profit from a crisis. I don’t want to take advantage of people’s fear,” he said.
‘Polarisation’
Nearly 10 months of cross-border violence have killed about 558 people in Lebanon, most of them combatants but also at least 116 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including the Golan Heights, 22 soldiers and 25 civilians have been killed, according to army figures.
Ali, who rents a serviced apartment in central Beirut, said his phone “did not stop ringing” before Nasrallah’s speech.
“I booked 10 flats in two days,” he said.
“Many people came here and booked immediately … or they called me and were here within an hour,” said the 32-year-old, who asked to be given only by name.
Hezbollah fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006, during which the Israeli air force bombed Beirut’s southern suburbs every night for a month, destroying hundreds of apartment blocks.
At the time, many people across Lebanon’s sectarian divide expressed support for Hezbollah and solidarity with the Shia Muslim community, many of whom had lost their homes and livelihoods.
But this time, Batool, a Dahiyah resident, said there is a lack of unity, as politicians are divided after Hezbollah unilaterally decided to attack Israeli targets on October 8.
“There wasn’t such polarisation in 2006,” he said.
Batoul said landlords and others are profiting from the high demand for housing, which is driven solely by greed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
