BEIRUT: Hussain Murtada and his family are camping in the back of a small truck, a flimsy tarpaulin shielding them from a storm on Sunday, with no room left at shelters for displaced people in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon.
“We are putting tarp over it because we’re soaked,” said Murtada, using string to fasten the plastic sheet over the back of the truck parked on the seafront. Inside, an infant peered out, surrounded by pillows, blankets and other possessions.
“I asked here at the schools and they are full, they’re all full,” said Murtada, who fled the town of Hanawiya, some 12 km (8 miles) from the border with Israel, with his family of seven.
“What should I ask for? I just want a shelter for me and the children,” Murtada added.
More than 800,000 people, around 15 percent of Lebanon’s population, have had to flee their homes since Israel began an offensive in the country after the Lebanese Hezbollah group opened fire at Israel in support of its ally Iran on March 2.
