Lebanon under attack: displaced persons and religious tensions

Translated by Maria Maddalena Zizzo

Since the beginning of March 2025, Israel has also involved Lebanon in its conflict against Palestinians and Iran, attacking the south of the country to thwart potential Hezbollah allies, an historical enemy of the Zionist State. In addition to causing innocent victims, the attacks have forced the majority of the survivors to seek shelter in other areas of Lebanon to safeguard their own safety. However, this phenomenon is affecting the country’s fragile internal balance, especially regarding the substantial presence of minorities, which is still a delicate element for the political stability.

Historical roots of the religious divisions in Lebanon

The borders of the present-day Lebanese state encompass various ethnic and religious groups: this is a historical legacy of the country, which has a great political impact to this day. 

Lebanon was under the Ottoman Empire for many centuries, until its dissolution after the Frist World War. Later, it came under the French protectorate in 1920. Even the territories of today’s Syria were given to France. The religious composition has had a key role in drawing boundaries between the two States. Half of the Lebanon’s population, in fact, consisted of Muslims; the other half of Christians of the Maronite Church (1), who had France’s support. Their presence allowed France to limit the reinforcement of the pan-Arab nationalism, distinguishing between Muslim Syria and the “Great Lebanon”. 

Considering the religious differences, the system of government established by French in Lebanon was confessional in natured, aimed at preventing the exclusion of any group from political representation. Nevertheless, in the parliament the majority of seats was for Maronite Christians.

Lebanon became an independent State in 1943, but kept the structures set up by the French. But, over the years, numbers changed. Muslims are now the majority, without having the proper representation in the Parliament. This is one of the reasons that led to the civil war in 1975.

Nevertheless, after the end of the conflict in 1990, half of the seats in the Parliament were assigned to Christians and the other half to Muslims, including the Druses (a closed community of Shia Islamic faith, which was influenced by other beliefs). Furthermore, the president is always Maronite Christian, the prime minister is Sunni Muslim, and the president of the Assembly is Shia Muslim.

The current situation looks like this: in a population of 5,8 million of people, the Lebanese government officially recognises 18 different religious groups, although a higher number is estimated. 30% are Maronite Christians, followed by Greek Orthodox Christians, and the 60% are equally divided in Sunnis and Shia. About 5% are Druse. Among others, there are Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists.

It is not hard to imagine why Lebanon has still not completely left behind the tensions that led to the civil war, especially considering the presence of so many religious beliefs.

The Israeli offensive and the crisis of displaced persons

Since March 2026 Israel has attacked various areas in southern Lebanon and its capital, Beirut, escalating the conflict for the second time in less than two years. The offensive continued in April and, although a ceasefire was reached on April 17th, Isreal did not stop. The aim behind this attack is to stop Hezbollah, an organization and political movement made of Shia Muslims, and considered by Israel to be terroristic, because anti-Zionist.

The offensive evolved rapidly. The attacks consisted of air raids, drone attacks and incursions of the Israeli army.

Although it was declared that the aim is exclusively linked to Hezbollah, in reality the situation seems different. Whole cities have been destroyed, as well as religious and historical monuments. This has caused many civilian deaths and around 1,2 million of people have been forced to leave their houses to seek shelter elsewhere.

These recent events threaten the internal stability of the Lebanese state and the safety of internal refugees.

Most displaced persons come from southern Lebanon, an area in which the population is predominantly Shiite. Hezbollah is also mostly made of Shia Muslims, the same branch of Islam that is predominant in Iran. For this reason, many refugees coming from the South of the country are generally not frowned upon.

Some Lebanese blame Hezbollah of having provoked Israel’s response. The fact that displaced people share the same religious faith as the organisation further fuels mistrust and discrimination.

Moreover, Israel claims of striking targets that are linked to Hezbollah, even in areas where communities of displaced persons are located, therefore contributing to increasing the hostilities of the population that hosts them

An example of this growing distrust of displaced people has been the proposal to create a refugee reception centre in the Karantina neighbourhood, in the capital, Beirut.

The project raised many protests of the inhabitants of the area. The opposition draws attention to health risks and possible increased traffic in the area. But the real reason behind the rejection is the religious differences. In fact, Maronite Christian are among the main opponents of the project; they are contrary to the fact that the reception centre would have inevitably hosted mostly Shia Muslims.

In the end, the proposal to build a refugee reception centre was suspended.

The neighbourhood, whose name come from French, Quarantine, embodies the complex and tragic history of Lebanon as an independent State: it was one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the city before the civil war. It was home to mostly Sunni Muslims and Christians, as well as small communities of Kurdish, Armenian, Syrian and Egyptian workers, and Lebanese citizens who came from different parts of the country to find a job in the capital.

The civil war led different ethnic and religious groups from Lebanon to commit mutual violence, and the Karantina neighbourhood was not exempted. In 1976, in fact, a massacre against the Muslim community of the neighbourhoods occurred. For this reason, it was striking that, during the protests against the creation of a reception centre, much of the rhetoric used resembled that prevalent during the civil war.

This shows how the open wounds left by the civil war are still open in the Lebanese society. On the one hand, Israel acts in an already extremely fragile context, and its attacks enhance the internal divisions of a country marked by a complex past. On the other, the main victims are the civilians, forced to flee their houses and to become involved in political and military dynamics that affect them only indirectly, often just because of their religious belief. In a country where the lines of division have never fully healed, the war ends up reopening them.

(1) The Maronite Church, founded in the 5th century in what is now western Syria, is part of the Patriarchate of Antioch. It is the only Eastern Church that has never separated from the Vatican.

Copyright © 2026 - Mondo Internazionale APS - All rights reserved