Lebanon’s largest stadium prepares to protect hundreds of displaced people from winter
In Lebanon’s largest sports stadium, the Camille Chamoun Sports City, workers are working around the clock building cubicles to house more than half a thousand displaced people who, after seven weeks of Israeli bombing, are still living outdoors in Beirut, where the first people have just arrived. winter rains.
In a week of non-stop work, the workers have been able to erect 80 rooms and, in one more, they hope to be ready to welcome a first batch of hundreds of displaced people, explains Ali Shour, Director of Operations at the Banin Charitable Association, in charge of the project.
Since Israel began its intense bombing campaign against Lebanon on September 23, 1.2 million people have had to leave their homes, more than 190,000 of whom are in some 1,150 shelters accredited by the authorities, according to the latest official situation report.
Given the magnitude of the displaced crisis, the worst in the history of the small Mediterranean nation, the vast majority of shelters are full. Especially in Beirut, which concentrates more than 55,000 of the displaced in schools, only surpassed in number by the neighboring province of Mount Lebanon.
To make its situation even worse, the capital has recorded the first heavy rainfall of the winter season in recent days, while temperatures begin to gradually drop.
According to Shour, although the Beirut City Council has managed to relocate the “majority” of the displaced people who remained outdoors to schools or even private residential buildings, they still have around 500 in this situation. (Efe)
