In its center Beirutshaken by the Israeli bombardment of its southern suburbs, the influx of the displaced, who have come from its strongholds Hezbollahcauses tensions and panic, awakening the demon of communal tensions.

After welcoming into her apartment in Beirut a family who had fled the southern suburbs, a stronghold of the Shiite movement, Christina had to ask them to leave: her neighbors feared that members of the family might belong to Hezbollah and were being watched. from the Israel.

“Our neighbors panicked, they started asking,” says this 30-year-old woman who refuses to give her last name.

“There are growing tensions and growing suspicion towards the displaced because they belong to the same community (ie: Shia) as Hezbollah,” he explains.

Although this formation, the only one that did not lay down arms after the civil war (1975-1990), enjoys immense support within its community and has significant influence on the country’s governance, many Lebanese accuse it of dragging the country into a war. with Israel.

The conflict, which began a year ago when Hezbollah, an ally of the Palestinian Hamas, opened a front against Israel, turned from September 23 into open war, with the Israeli army pounding the strongholds of the pro-Iranian movement in the south and eastern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of the capital.

The bombing killed more than 1,100 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures, and displaced more than a million.

Tens of thousands of them have flocked to the capital. They have camped out in schools or even sleep on the street.

Within fifteen days, the face of Beirut had changed, with traffic jams worse than ever and garbage overflowing from bins.

A 58-year-old housewife, who does not want to give her name, recounts the fear that gripped the neighborhood after the arrival of a very religious family in the apartment building.

The women were covered in black from head to toe. But the family has no political affiliation, says the woman, “they are just religious”.

“We’re seeing more and more women in chadors, beards and young people dressed in black, we’re not used to that” in downtown Beirut, he adds.

“People are looked at with suspicion on the street,” she continues, acknowledging that she herself has been affected by the surrounding paranoia.

While visiting a friend, she saw bearded men on the balcony of an apartment housing displaced people. She then cut short her visit, fearing that they might be members of Hezbollah and therefore potential targets of an Israeli strike.

Outside Beirut, tensions have also risen in this small, multi-faith country of nearly six million people, where the wounds of civil war have not yet healed.

The Israeli strikes targeted displaced people outside Hezbollah’s traditional strongholds, such as the Druze mountain village of Baadaran.

“In the beginning people would rent houses to anyone, but now they are much more cautious,” says Imad, a 68-year-old resident of a Druze village who refuses to give his last name.

Eli, who also did not want to give his last name, says no one in his Christian village near Beirut rented to the displaced.

“People are afraid because we can’t know if there are Hezbollah members among them,” the 30-year-old told AFP. “They also fear that displaced people will settle permanently.”

In Beirut, displaced people breached entrances and entered empty buildings seeking shelter and bringing back bad memories of the civil war that had killed more than 150,000 people.

“A very small number of evacuees occupied private properties,” the police announced a few days ago, assuring that they were taking steps to “remove” them and find a solution for their accommodation.

Riad, a 60-year-old businessman living abroad, says that his sister-in-law guards their apartment against possible squatters.

“We experienced it in the 70s and 80s,” when armed groups seized properties to give to members of their community, he recounts.

“It took some ten years to get their house back… That’s why people are panicking,” he adds. “It has already happened, it will happen again.”