In a room inside an abandoned hotel known by “Montana” in the town of Marwaniyeh— which has been turned into a shelter for displaced people since the outbreak of the war in October 2023 — the 76-year-old Sami Ahmad Rahhal (Abu Ahmad) sits on his simple bed. Holding up his mobile phone, showing us his three floors home, which was blown up by the Israeli occupation forces in his hometown of Adaisseh in the Marjeyoun district of Nabatieh governorate.
Before the war began, Abu Ahmad owned several small shops, including a butcher shop where he worked and earned his living. Describing what happened to his town, he says it was “like an earthquake that blew up everything,” referring to the amount of destruction. The devastation did not stop at his house; it also reached his shops and the olive groves he had planted with his own hands more than fifty years ago. They were burned during the incursion of the forces into the town in November 2024, during the sixty-six-day war.
Around seventy families from Adaisseh are now displaced in the Montana Hotel. Every day they cooperate with one another to secure their needs and get fuel for heating. In a small room where he lives today, he tries to create a temporary life out of nothing. “We manage our life in this room… we’ve turned it into a kitchen, a sitting room, a guest room, and a bedroom.”
Abu Ahmad does not ask for much. “Help us, even with small homes… just a small room we can return to.” Then he adds with sorrow: “At the age of 76, how can I work and support myself?”
What troubles Uncle Sami the most is not the loss of his house or land, but the thought that he might die in the place where he has been displaced, and be buried “as a deposit” outside his town because he cannot reach it, as residents are still prevented from returning or rebuilding their homes.
Today, Adaisseh has become an empty village. Abu Ahmad is one of around one hundred thousand displaced people from the border villages, scattered across different regions of Lebanon, while the war continues for a second year, with daily bombardment and targeted assassinations carried out by the occupation forces.
