BEIRUT — Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims fleeing danger and death in southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs have taken refuge in the city's Christian and Sunni quarters in the last six days.

The sudden influx of so many displaced Shiites, many of whom support the militant group Hezbollah, threatens to upset Lebanon's delicate sectarian balance.

For the first time in decades of conflict, Shiite refugees have had to take shelter in neighbourhoods where many residents oppose Hezbollah and blame the Islamic group for wrongly provoking the Israeli offensive that has killed more than 200 Lebanese since last Wednesday.

Israeli offensives in southern Lebanon have displaced Shiites many times over the last 30 years or so, but they've always taken refuge in the largely Shiite suburbs of south Beirut. But now, both the South and the southern suburbs are under Israeli fire and the Shiites must flee into the city itself.

What nobody knows is exactly how many people have been displaced, but it is clear that a humanitarian crisis looms ahead.

"People are aware that this is a problem that must be tackled, but the situation is changing so fast that plans beyond that are not being put into place," said a European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Cumulatively, there's risk that this will lead to a breakdown in law and order."

The Lebanese government has unlocked public schools for refugees to live in but has provided little else. That has allowed Hezbollah — which operates a social wing that provides health care and runs schools — to step into the breach, supplying foam mattresses, food and water to the displaced.

In the largely Christian neighbourhood of Achrafieh, tense Hezbollah "officials" guarded the entry to the Ones School yesterday afternoon, which has become home to 1,200 Shiite refugees. With walkie-talkies and clipboards, they monitor who comes in and out with bureaucratic precision, whether they're Red Cross doctors, journalists or refugees.

Upstairs, in classroom No. 3, eleven refugee families — with a combined total of 25 children — have been sleeping on the floor for five nights now. Shortly after the first attacks began, they fled villages in Lebanon's deep south, an area that is now one of the most dangerous spots in Lebanon.

"Three rockets landed around our house," said Jaffar Ashar, a father of five from a village near the southern city of Tyre. Nobody was hurt and within the hour he had loaded his entire family into the car and they drove north to Beirut.

But Israeli air strikes had taken out a bridge on the road and the family had to abandon their car, ford the river and find a taxi on the other side to take them the rest of the way.

They've been sleeping on the classroom floor every since.

In the corridor outside, women cook noodles on propane stoves and a group of men sit smoking a nargileh (water pipe).

"I think my house is still intact," said Hisham Sharifi, who has come from the Beirut suburb of Harat Hreik, a nearby Shiite neighbourhood that has been hit dozens of times in the last six days.

Like all the refugees interviewed at the Ones School yesterday, Sharifi had high praise for Hezbollah's continued attacks against Israel. Hezbollah's officials lurked within earshot for all the interviews.

"Hezbollah fights for our rights, for the rights of all Lebanese," Sharifi said.

But a few blocks from the school, in Sassine Square, the heart of Christian East Beirut, residents are intolerant of Hezbollah and its Shiite supporters.

"We want to live. We want peace. They want to fight," said Elie Freiha, 37, who owns a falafel shop in Sassine Square. "It's their identity and it will lead this country to disaster. We cannot live with that."

In this part of town, there's not only a growing backlash against Hezbollah, there's praise for the way Israel has responded — unleashing the deadliest attacks against Lebanon since 1982.

"There is no other solution for (Hezbollah). The Lebanese government can't disarm Hezbollah and I think Israel will succeed," said Claude Saliba, 30, a restaurant supplier. "Israel should do it. Not just for us Christians but for all Lebanese."

To be sure, some Christians in East Beirut looked past sectarian lines and saw the Shiite refugees as fellow Lebanese under attack:

"We cannot tell them to leave. They are suffering, just like us," said Charlotte Bridi, 61.

Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited

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