{"id":522739,"date":"2026-03-06T15:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522739\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T15:27:15","slug":"from-one-catastrophe-to-another-lebanese-australians-look-on-in-horror-as-relatives-flee-homes-australia-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/522739\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018From one catastrophe to another\u2019: Lebanese Australians look on in horror as relatives flee homes | Australia news"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Dr Saad Ramadan, the holy period of Ramadan should be a time of spiritual reflection. But he is worried about his family in Lebanon<\/a>, who face \u201cchaos and fear\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the early hours of Monday morning, his elderly parents and five siblings fled their village in southern Lebanon \u2013 under \u201cindiscriminate Israeli attacks<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine bombs are coming and you have an hour and a half to pack up,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

A journey to Beirut that usually takes 90 minutes stretched into a 25-hour ordeal as families crawled through gridlocked traffic.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth and south bound lanes were packed with cars heading to Beirut. There were no people left in south Lebanon, it\u2019s a ghost town.\u201d<\/p>\n

People flee Beirut\u2019s southern suburbs after Israeli warnings. Photograph: Khalil Ashawi\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Ramadan, who migrated to Australia in 1991, is part of a diaspora caught in a painful liminal space. Like many Lebanese Australians, the rhythm of daily life is now punctured by the chime of WhatsApp notifications and news bulletins about a homeland once again engulfed in conflict after Hezbollah \u2013 a Shia Islamist organisation considered a proxy for the Iranian regime<\/a> \u2013 launched a volley of rockets at Israel<\/a> in retaliation for the US-Israeli killing of the Iranian supreme leader<\/a>, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.<\/p>\n

Israel responded, hitting the southern suburbs of Beirut, the Bekaa valley and south Lebanon and forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.<\/p>\n

Ramadan\u2019s family found a two-bedroom apartment in Beirut. Five families \u2013 and his parents \u2013 live under one roof.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are lucky,\u201d he says. \u201cRentals are not available, many don\u2019t even have apartments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact they have had to leave their homeland, their villages, ruins the spirituality of Ramadan. It\u2019s a time for fasting and prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n

Gamel Kheir, the secretary for the Lebanese Muslim Association \u2013 a Sunni organisation that predominantly represents communities from north Lebanon \u2013 said the impact of the conflict occurring during Islam\u2019s holiest month was compounding the community\u2019s pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re beyond resilience at the moment. We\u2019ve gone from one catastrophe to another catastrophe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou double that up with the huge rise in Islamophobia in Australia<\/a> \u2026 It\u2019s piling up. It\u2019s the fact that we\u2019re getting death threats at the mosque<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Mentally, I\u2019m not here\u2019<\/p>\n

Fatima Hassoun, 39, lives in Australia with her husband and children, but her mind is in Lebanon \u2013 where most of her immediate family is.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m living in two places,\u201d she says. \u201cMentally, I\u2019m not here.\u201d<\/p>\n

She barely sleeps and is hypervigilant, checking her phone at all hours, fearing the worst for her family \u2013 who are all in Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Hassoun is one of eight siblings. Nearly all of them, and her parents, joined the mass exodus from the south. They fled first to Saida, then to Beirut, only to find a capital so overwhelmed there was nowhere to sleep.<\/p>\n

Refugees inside a school turned makeshift shelter in Dekwaneh, north of Beirut. Photograph: Joseph Eid\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

For four days, her brother, his wife, and their five children \u2013 including a four-month-old baby \u2013 lived out of their car on the streets of Beirut.<\/p>\n

Desperate, exhausted and without shelter, the family made the difficult decision to return to the south \u2013 back towards the danger they had just fled.<\/p>\n

Watching their displacement from safety has taken a heavy psychological toll.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is exhausted,\u201d Hassoun says. \u201cMy nervous system is worn out, even my husband\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

She finds it difficult to be a present mother, feeling \u201ccrushing guilt\u201d for being safe in Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mood is always bad. When my daughter comes home from school, I feel like I can\u2019t listen to her tell me about her day. My eyes are always on the news,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The Shia Muslim Council said it was concerned about the impact for the Lebanese community in Australia which was witnessing their families endure \u201cyet another wave of displacement and violence in Lebanon\u201d.<\/p>\n

The council said that unlike during Israel\u2019s attacks on Lebanon in 2024, there was little available accommodation available for displaced families and an absence of government and private sector support.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, daily indiscriminate bombings are intensifying, forcing families to move repeatedly as once-safe areas come under attack. Relatives on the ground are cold, hungry, and exhausted,\u201d council directors Ali Alsamail and Julie Karaki said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n

Stuck in limbo<\/p>\n

Fadl, who requested his last name not be used, was diagnosed with aggressive leukaemia in March 2025. He collapsed while visiting family in Australia who had been evacuated from Lebanon by Dfat in October 2024; Fadl had stayed to care for his mother and in-laws.<\/p>\n

The 57-year-old was in a Sydney hospital for months \u2013 including two and a half months in a coma.<\/p>\n

A plane leaving Beirut after Israeli military strikes. Photograph: Wael Hamzeh\/EPA<\/p>\n

Facing a terminal diagnosis, he made a decision: he would fly back to Lebanon to see his family and seek medical treatment there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalf of my family is there, I need to see them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Halfway between Qatar and Beirut on 28 February the pilot announced the plane was turning back to Doha because the airspace had closed<\/a> as the US-Israel and Iran war escalated.<\/p>\n

Fadl, who requires a wheelchair and regular hospital treatment, spent nine hours in the airport waiting for answers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe waited and waited \u2026 one queue to another,\u201d he says. \u201cI was so tired, but I kept my composure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The airline offered only blankets and floor space \u2013 an impossibility for a terminal cancer patient and an infant granddaughter traveling with him.<\/p>\n

The family is now stranded in Qatar, paying out-of-pocket for accommodation and the critical medical care Fadl needs to stay alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t go back to Sydney, we can\u2019t go forward to Lebanon because the airspace is closed,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s unsustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We feel abandoned\u2019<\/p>\n

From his temporary shelter in Qatar, Fadl says his family in southern Lebanon has been displaced, with his mother and sister\u2019s homes both located close to bombed areas.<\/p>\n

He is disappointed with what he calls the \u201cblind eye\u201d turned to the plight of Lebanese civilians by the Australian government.<\/p>\n

Ramadan likewise believes there is a \u201cclear disparity in how the government acknowledges the suffering of different communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018We want more peace,\u2019 says Ramadan. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel abandoned,\u201d Ramadan says. \u201cWe expect the Australian government to stand behind us and to name things for what they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want more peace. We don\u2019t want to wake up to the news to find more people being killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Shia Muslim Council said community members were carrying the emotional burden of watching their homeland \u201ctrapped in recurring conflict\u201d that \u201cis deeply personal and profoundly distressing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany are in constant contact with loved ones, providing what support they can while feeling overwhelming helplessness from afar.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diaspora continues to live between two worlds: one of physical safety in Australia, and another of mounting grief in Lebanon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Dr Saad Ramadan, the holy period of Ramadan should be a time of spiritual reflection. But he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-522739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}