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WORLD NEWS Tuesday 24 sepTember 2024
Thousands flee southern Lebanon in search of safety and shelter

By FADI TAWIL and milling around as volunteers
MOHAMMAD ZAATARI registered them. Yahya Abu
Associated Press Ali, who fled with his family
BEIRUT (AP) — Thousands from the village of Doueir in
of families from southern Lebanon’s Nabatieh district,
Lebanon packed cars and struck a defiant tone.
minivans with suitcases, mat- “Don’t think that an airplane
tresses, blankets and carpets or a missile will defeat us,
and jammed the highway or that a wounded person
heading north toward Bei- or a martyr on the ground
rut on Monday to flee the will weaken us,” he said.
deadliest Israeli bombard- “On the contrary, it gives us
ment since 2006. strength, determination, and
Some 100,000 people living resilience.”
near the border had already But Abu Ali also admitted
been displaced since Oc- that he was worried about
tober, when the Lebanese his four siblings and their fam-
militant group Hezbollah ilies who remained behind in
and Israeli forces began southern Lebanon.
exchanging near-daily fire “God willing, I hope they will
against the backdrop of the make it out,” he said.
war in Gaza. As the fighting Minar al-Natour, a volun-
intensifies, the number of teer at the school, said the
evacuees is expected to rise. Women and children fleeing the Israeli airstrikes in the south, arrive at a school turned into a team on the ground was still
shelter in Beirut, Monday, Sept. 23, 2024.
In Beirut and beyond, schools Associated Press in “early stages” of prepa-
were quickly repurposed to rations to host the larger
receive the newly displaced “These are the only things I would be safety. blamed on Israel, which has numbers expected to arrive.
as volunteers scrambled to brought,” she said, gesturing The Israeli military warned not confirmed or denied re- “We’re securing medicine,
gather water, medicine and at the three tote bags she residents in eastern and sponsibility. water, and of course all
mattresses. carried. southern Lebanon to evac- Israeli officials have said they the essential supplies,” she
In the coastal city of Sidon, Fatima Chehab, who came uate ahead of a widening are ramping up pressure said. In Beirut’s Aisha Bakkar
people seeking shelter with her three daughters air campaign against what against Hezbollah in an at- neighborhood where some
streamed into schools that from the area of Nabatieh, it said were Hezbollah weap- tempt to force it to stop firing residents had received mes-
had no mattresses to sleep said her family had been ons sites. More than 490 peo- rockets into northern Israel sages instructing them to
on yet. Many waited on side- displaced twice in quick ple were killed in Lebanon so that tens of thousands of evacuate shop owner Ma-
walks outside. succession. “We first fled on Monday, officials said, displaced Israelis can return zen al-Hakeem said most
Ramzieh Dawi had arrived to stay with my brother in a and more than 1,240 people home. Hezbollah has said it had not heeded the call.
with her husband and nearby area, and then they were wounded a stagger- will only stop when there is a “There is no fear but there is
daughter after hastily evac- bombed three places next ing toll for a country still reel- cease-fire in Gaza. At a pub- anticipation,” he said. “Peo-
uating the village of Yarine, to his house,” she said. ing from a deadly attack on lic high school in the capi- ple are filling their tanks with
carrying just a few essential Some people waited for communication devices last tal’s Ras al-Nabaa neigh- fuel, storing food and gro-
items as airstrikes boomed hours in gridlocked traffic week. borhood, a few dozen men, ceries. They are taking their
nearby. to get to what they hoped That attack was widely women and children were precautions.” q

9 European Union nations pledge to turn the Mediterranean into a

green energy hub

By MENELAOS HADJICOSTIS tially repel investors. Papanastasiou said that in shallow waters, whose are also plans for wave-
Associated Press They called on the Euro- some countries have al- results will be studied by fel- generated energy and
LARNACA, Cyprus (AP) — pean Commission to head ready undertaken offshore low MED9 nations to tailor floating photovoltaic units
Officials from nine southern a new study on the region’s wind energy pilot projects their own facilities. There since there’s greater ca-
European Union member renewable energy poten- pacity in southern Europe
countries said Monday tial on which “informed for such technologies ow-
they’re focused on har- decision-making and con- ing to abundant sunlight.
nessing offshore wind and crete action” will be taken Spain’s Energy Agency
solar energy to try to turn on moving ahead green Director-General Joan
the Mediterranean region energy projects. The state- Groizard said that Medi-
into a renewable energy ment came at the MED9 terranean countries “can
hub and stave off the risks Energy Ministerial Meeting and must be at the fore-
of climate change. in Larnaca. front of the energy transi-
The energy ministers of Cy- George Papanastasiou, tion,” because they are the
prus, Slovenia and Malta, energy minister of host Cy- most vulnerable to climate
Croatia’s economy minis- prus, told reporters that so- change.
ter as well as officials from called MED9 countries are A key challenge to tapping
Greece, Italy, France, Por- looking at ways of gener- offshore wind and solar en-
tugal and Spain said in a ating green energy from ergy generation facilities is
joint statement that they’re offshore platforms because plugging them into existing
working on setting up joint of the growing scarcity President of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides addresses the the onshore power grids and
renewable energy projects of land in Mediterranean Summit of the Future, in the United Nations General Assembly, interconnections to trans-
across borders without the countries on which to build Monday, Sept. 23, 2024. mit to other countries.q
red tape that could poten- such projects. Associated Press