NAHR EL BARED – Lebanon

NAHR EL BARED, LEBANON. 2008

In the 2007, the Lebanese military force surrounds Nahr el Bared, a city to the north of Tripoli. The most of its population is Palestinian. The attack is motivated by the presence of 200-300 militants of Fatah Islam. The Lebanon Government wants to catch them, but the military action will destroy also the urban environment and the social structure of the city. From the 27th of May 2007 until the beginning of September, the Lebanese force bombards the city by ground using artillery weapons. There isn’t a bombardment with the air force: it would have been more destructive, but certainly quicker. So the citizens of Nahar el Bared (previously evacuated) are cut off in a desperate and painful waiting by a slow long rain of fire for three months. In this period they try – mostly in vain – to come back home and salvage their things or put them in a safe place. During the war, there are also bloody fights between Lebanese soldiers and rebels on the streets and into the houses.

In spite of the evacuation, the dead among the civilians were more than one-hundred. More over, after the end of the hostilities, many people have been injured or killed by unexploded mines. At the moment, all the toxic dust of bombs and explosions is polluting the whole zone: this is a serious danger, first of all for children’s health. They are growing up between ruins and rubble.

The centre of Nahr el Bared is completely destroyed. Lebanese soldiers are on the alert night and day. It has been fenced and nobody can go in.

All around the centre there’s a sort of ring where the families are trying to rebuild their houses and start a new life with the support of the international community and humanitarian aids. Also this zone is watched by the Lebanese army, not only by soldiers, but also by plain-clothes watchers. It’s impossible to go in without a special permit for a term of two months. Only those who have come back to live in Nahr el Bared and the International NGO that work in this area can get it. Nor reporters neither photographers are allowed to enter. Obviously, this means that it’s very difficult to get knowledge of the of Nahr el Bared tragedy: the inhabitants were 35.000 before the war, now only 3.500 families are living in what remains of their houses.

Category
A - Reportage

Yellow Mercedes inside Nahr el Bared Camp. This zone is controlled by the Lebanon military force and nobody can come into this area without a permission.

Nahr el Bared Camp. Desperation of a woman: she's trying to recover her things from her destroyed house.

Nahr el Bared Camp, red zone. Nobody has the access into this part of the city totally destroyed by the war. In this area there are unexploded mines and bombs.

Home interior destroyed by bombing and fighting.

Inside the house of a Palestinian family. A son of this woman was killed during the war. Her husband was imprisoned by the Lebanon military force. They had a bar once upon a time. Now their house is damaged and they live with the help of the NGO and probably supported by Hezbolla. She's got nine sons.

The house, the objects, the life of this man is inside this cointeiner’s room.

Boy sleeping inside a hut. During the summer time temperature and dampness are unberable in Nahr el Bared Camp.

Woman with child

A little girl washes her hands in a canal with dirty water polluted by the bombings.

A bombed building.

Fatigue and discouragement during the work of removing debris from the upper floors of a stricken building.

View from the upper floors of a bombed building of the sea and the ruins of the city.

A child between destroyed houses.

Man on a wheelchair in consequence of the bombing.

“Ordinary” daylife in a bombed house.

These people live in a container in Nahr el Bared Camp. During the summer time the temperature and the dampness are unberable. This man, injuried during the war, now lives on a wheelchair. He has got a hospital-bed, but he can't use it because it's too big and it's impossible to bring it in through the door. In the 2007, the Lebanese military force surrounds Nahr el Bared, a city to the north of Tripoli. The most of its population is Palestinian. The attack is motivated by the presence of 200-300 militants of Fatah Islam. The Lebanon Government wants to catch them, but the military action will destroy also the urban environment and the social structure of the city. From the 27th of May 2007 until the beginning of September, the Lebanese force bombards the city by ground using artillery weapons. There isn't a bombardment with the air force: it would have been more destructive, but certainly quicker. So the citizens of Nahar el Bared (previously evacuated) are cut off in a desperate and painful waiting by a slow long rain of fire for three months. In this period they try - mostly in vain - to come back home and salvage their things or put them in a safe place. During the war, there are also bloody fights between Lebanese soldiers and rebels on the streets and into the houses. In spite of the evacuation, the dead among the civilians were more than one-hundred. More over, after the end of the hostilities, many people have been injured or killed by unexploded mines. At the moment, all the toxic dust of bombs and explosions is polluting the whole zone: this is a serious danger, first of all for children's health. They are growing up between ruins and rubble. The centre of Nahr el Bared is completely destroyed. Lebanese soldiers are on the alert night and day. It has been fenced and nobody can go in. All around the centre there's a sort of ring where the families are trying to rebuild their houses and start a new life with the support of the international community and

Child dressed in a yellow t-shirt with the picture of an Arabic fighter. He lives in front of the forbidden area of Nahr el Bared, where nobody can enter.

Playing between the ruins.

A child is washing his hands in a canal with dirty water.

This Palestinian man is a English teacher. He told me that he was thrown out the Palestinian land since 1948.

I met this family in Nahr el Bared Camp where they came back to live after bombings that had devastated the city. They told me their story. They were trying to escape from Nahr el Bared but their van was hit by a grenade. The father and a cousin were killed. His wife and his five children survived. They didn't want to be photographed. I went on the roof to take some pictures of ruins of the city. There I found six black robes fluttering to dry in front of the rubble. I shot the family portrait. Six black dresses drying on the roof of an house in a forbidden area. In this house lived a family of six person. The father was killed during the war trying to save his family. Now the widow lives with the NGO support and probably with the help of Hezbolla.

This man was one of the strongest in his community. Now his strength holds a remote control.

House damaged by the war. During the war people fought also into the houses. Now the family is trying to come back to a normal life.

A young woman walking on destroyed stairs.

A young woman is looking at her destroyed town.

White doves fly away from the ruins.

Boys walking with drums through the destroyed city. The man comes up again as a trivial actor in a sadly renewed show that has got always the same end. The scenery seems to change, but it is equal to a thousand others. Ancestral tired drums resonate to seal a precarious ending waiting for the next tribal gong, the sign of the hostilities resumption. The theater will change, the time will change, the actors will change, but there will be the same despairing cry.