BEIRUT, 17 August 2006 — It smells like Palestine...

The smell is hauntingly familiar for anyone who has been to a war zone. The lethal combination of death, garbage, and destruction makes you gag as you try to breath in the mass destruction of Al-Dahiyah, the southern suburb of Beirut and the headquarters of Hezbollah.

After Hassan Nasrallah’s speech Monday night, there was an exodus of the displaced going back to their homes, trying to assess the damage done to their lives and property after Israel’s attack.

Israel’s missiles hit Al-Dahiyah hard. Bridges, buildings, homes, and Al-Manar TV station were a few targets.

There were traffic jams, people in the thousands went down to Al-Dahiyah to witness the atrocities committed against their country and their lives. The first impression of the area is shock at the magnitude of destruction. People walk around in disbelief as they barely recognize where they used to live. The reaction differs from crying to anger and finally pride that they are still standing victorious.

Everywhere you look, you find people trying to piece their lives back together, a family moving out furniture that is miraculously intact, men in a garage welding the gate of the storefront together, and two boys stubbornly fixing a window amid the destruction.

Three girls were knee deep in the rubble looking for a photo album, their memories stolen. Nobody was in the mood to talk. But there were banners and fliers praising the resistance, condemning the aggressors, as well as security checkpoints to ensure no one wanders and steps on an un-detonated bomb. You also had to be careful of falling cement blocks from burning buildings.

Zicco house is full today, and everyday for that matter since July 13. Located next to Future TV in Al-Hamra, you can hardly walk up the stairs without bumping into someone. The house is now the home of a newly formed collective, called Samidoun created on the eve of the war to help in the relief work created by the sudden influx of displaced coming into the city. Over 240 volunteers have spent the past month trying to offer assistance that relief organizations have not been able to provide. Volunteers all over the house are on the phone trying to coordinate donations, food rations, clothing, medicine, all the daily essentials for the displaced who had to flee with only the clothes on their back. Everyone now is debating the next phase of relief work. Along with the rest of the country, displaced and volunteers alike waited with great skepticism and fear for the cease-fire. “We were expecting the Israeli’s to erase Al-Dahiyah from the map, we were anticipating the worst” said Bassim Chid, a field coordinator for Samidoun.

Al-Sanayah Garden is the meeting place for those fleeing from the bombing, some stay waiting to be relocated to a school, or move to apartments or relatives in other locations around the city. The numbers vary, but the number of displaced in the garden increased the night of the cease-fire from around 300 to 1,300. There were many challenges along the way for these volunteers as they tried to cope with the sudden reality they found themselves in. Some of the volunteers withdrew in the first few weeks because they could not handle the pressure. It was overwhelming for many; the chaos, the huge influx of people into Beirut was staggering, almost one million Lebanese are now displaced.