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Monday 30 March 2026

Resistance in Lebanon: ‘We are all victims—but we are not only victims’

As the state abandons those displaced, popular resistance in Lebanon has taken the form of mutual aid, organising local networks to support refugees. Socialist Worker’s photographer Guy Smallman has been reporting from south Lebanon and recorded the following interviews.

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Monday 30 March 2026

Issue 2999

Aftermath of the attack on the Ahmad Abass housing complex in Bachoura (Photos: Guy Smallman)

Israel’s attacks have displaced over a million people since the beginning of March. But Israeli bombs and invasions are a constant feature of Lebanon’s history.

As the state abandons those displaced, popular resistance in Lebanon has taken the form of mutual aid, organising local networks to support refugees. These daily acts of solidarity make up the heroic efforts to fight Israel’s terror today.

Socialist Worker’s photographer Guy Smallman has been reporting from south Lebanon and recorded the following interviews.

Hashem Adnan, Playwright, theatre director and cultural manager of the BAHH cooperative at Betram

Betram was established about three years ago, before 7 October. The idea was to have this common area that activists, groups and collectives could use and to have this house as an office for NGOs and initiatives.

It is a space that is flexible to different situations—whether that is war, economic crisis or relatively normal days. When the war started, I felt that we had done half the work for ourselves to be really responsive to our people’s needs. The infrastructure was already in place.

Hashem Adnan

When things re-escalated at the beginning of March, we were ready to respond directly by calling for people to donate what was needed.

People replied very quickly. We are a society that has been through a lot and people usually respond quickly in such situations.

The place was flooded with clothes, mattresses, winter coats. It was cold and many people had left home without even taking a jacket.

Many nights people would come and stay, waiting for the bombing to finish. It was like a temporary shelter. Our contract is as an office, so no one could stay overnight.

But it was a place to come rest, access the internet, maybe have a wash, drink a coffee and take what they need and see how to be a refugee—which is not an easy task.

This place is a network of networks. Each collective is mobilised. Around 20 or 30 people, more sometimes, are active in the operation of getting donations, distributing and delivering.

There are people doing fundraising. There are fundraising events all over the world. We mobilised our networks outside of Lebanon to be able to aid our financial needs.

There are two essential roles we play. One is at the level of solidarity. Insisting on building and practicing unconditional solidarity.

That is directly connected to the idea that we exist in this country and have a shared enemy and it is time for us to be together regardless of political or ideological differences.

Inside the Beirut Arts Centre

This is something that is important in the context where Israelis are working actively to instigate a civil war in Lebanon.

The second part is that it is a way for us to have a direct relation with the people who need aid. It’s not like big international NGOs or even the state where there is no relationship between the people volunteering and the people receiving.

The scale of our operation gives us an opportunity to keep this relationship. This is important to people. To feel as citizens, active citizens, not only victims of war. We are victims, the people losing their houses are victims. But we are not only victims. I think this is very important to underline.

But I think we have had a big organising problem in Lebanon since 2019. We are operating only in crisis, only in emergencies. And this emergency and this crisis have been eating us. We are drained.

We don’t feel any real political agency nowadays. We are trying to formulate a certain kind of political narrative that is beyond the geopolitical struggle happening. One that is more connected to us, our class struggle, the liberation movements, anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism.

But the real dominator is the war. We are not an active part of this war. We try not to be only watching, but to also be witnesses. To tell the stories of our people, our struggles, our resistance. But at the same time, to build this solidarity as the only possible way of finding politics in the future.

Boulos Saad, Head of operations at Beirut Art Centre

The brutal and interesting reality is that every time we go through this sort of crisis, the more we witness what is happening, the more we practice this mutual aid and learn how to do it effectively and preserve our energies while we do relief work.

Boulos Saad

With this interaction and with establishing these systems, we find some kind of balance in how we deal with this extreme situation.

There is also something special this year, it being Ramadan has additionally created this sort of collective rhythm. Instead of kitchens working from 7am to 10pm, there is a rhythm where we work until iftar, we deliver the food and then there is time for rest.

We live in a much greater web than this great disaster that we see in front of us. Feeling held by these rhythms and preserving actually what orientates our culture, while we respond to its upending and its destruction and this attack, is one of our greatest forms of resistance.

Ghada, Lebanese Inclusive & Active Development

Lebanese Inclusive & Active Development began in 2019, in the aftermath of Lebanon’s financial collapse.

It was a grassroots humanitarian initiative responding to immediate needs—distributing food, organising iftar meals for orphaned children, supporting access to medicines and helping families after loss of savings due to the banking crisis.

Following the Beirut port explosion, the group mobilised to respond to urgent needs. Over time, it evolved into a registered NGO with a stronger focus on sustainable development, particularly in education and community support, while continuing to respond to emergencies.

The organisation has ongoing programmes with underprivileged children and their families. This has included educational support, workshops, art sessions, first aid training and community-building activities.

In late 2022, Lebanese Inclusive & Active Development also launched a women’s health initiative addressing period poverty. The group began as a network of friends and has grown into a wider community of volunteers and professionals in Lebanon and the diaspora.

Members come from diverse backgrounds including economics, engineering, business, humanitarian work, education and health.

This diversity has enabled the group to operate across multiple functions—procurement, logistics, needs assessments, education, communications and community engagement.

What connects people is less a formal structure and more a shared sense of responsibility and responsiveness to needs. Networks expanded organically through community ties and people stepping in where they saw a gap.

The work is grounded in a commitment to equity and access, with a strong focus on children and women. It’s based on the belief that supporting these groups has long-term implications for community resilience.

The approach is intentionally people-centred, prioritising dignity, inclusion and enabling individuals and families to regain some level of agency in extremely constrained conditions, rather than aligning with political actors.

Despite the scale of crisis, there are important forms of learning and solidarity emerging.

This type of response fosters new alliances between communities, diaspora networks and professionals. It builds practical, real-time capacities—how to operate under constraint, mobilise quickly and respond to evolving needs. It reinforces the central role of local actors as first responders—not as a complement to formal systems, but often as the primary mechanism through which support reaches people.

Maintaining morale is an ongoing challenge.

The team makes a deliberate effort to remain present with communities—visiting shelters, organising activities for children and families and engaging volunteers with specialised skills such as child development specialists and medical professionals.

These activities provide moments of relief and structure in otherwise unstable environments. Many responders are navigating their own displacement, responsibilities and uncertainty, which makes sustaining energy a collective effort.

Since 5 March, in response to the current escalation, Lebanese Inclusive & Active Development has reached approximately 14,000 forcibly displaced individuals across Lebanon.

Packing pillows in for refugees in the Beirut Arts Centre

Assistance has included bedding, cleaning supplies, infant items, menstrual hygiene materials, clothing, gas stoves and cooking support, essential medical support and limited cash assistance.

This response builds on previous efforts during the October 2024 escalation, when the organisation supported a large school shelter hosting approximately 11,000 displaced individuals.

During that period, the team provided informal education in maths, English and Arabic and organised activities for children. A key element of that response was involving displaced individuals themselves in the delivery of activities.

The work reflects a continuous, community-driven response to an ongoing and compounding crisis.

What this moment continues to show is that the response in Lebanon is not something external to communities. It is carried from within them, by people who are themselves affected and sustained through collective effort.

These early experiences—improvised, community-led and carried out under severe constraint—continue to shape how Lebanese Inclusive & Active Development approaches response today. Not only as delivery of aid, but as an effort to preserve dignity, continuity and agency in the midst of ongoing crisis.