THE NEW YORK TIMES:
Thousands displaced by Israeli strikes on Lebanon’s capital now shelter along the promenade hugging the Mediterranean Sea. They share it with joggers, cyclists and dog walkers, alongside dizzying displays of wealth.
The shirtless jogger, his headphones in and his back slick with sweat, ran past a row of tents pitched along the seafront in downtown Beirut, Lebanon’s capital. In one tent, a displaced family of four —
uprooted by weeks of war that have convulsed the nation — watched him pass.
For a moment, the scene held its uneasy calm. The evening sun faded into the Mediterranean Sea, the steady rhythm of the waves softened the edges of the day, and the runner kept his pace, eyes forward. And then a deafening roar shattered it all: An Israeli airstrike had hit a nearby neighborhood, sending plumes of smoke into the sky.
“We chose the seaside because it is peaceful,” said Hussein Hame, 37, who, along with his wife and two children, was displaced this month from Dahiya, a collection of neighborhoods on the southern outskirts of Beirut where Hezbollah holds sway. “But this war finds you everywhere.”
War has returned to Lebanon, and the capital’s meandering seafront has become an unlikely front line. Here, a stark contrast has emerged: The displaced and destitute sit in the cold, while others live life as usual — jogging, cycling — amid the dizzying wealth and luxury that exist nearby.
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Abdi Latif Dahir | Photographs by Diego Ibarra Sanchez | Reporting from Beirut, Lebanon | Sunday, March 22, 2026
