Paris wasn’t the only city left reeling from ISIS-associated terrorist attacks last week.
Fifteen hours before the terrible events started unfolding in the French capital, two blasts ripped through an open-air market in al-Barajneh, an area of south Beirut associated with the Hezbollah Islamist militant group.
Triggered by suicide bombers, they killed 43 people and left at least 239 others injured. While the Paris killings were the subject of rolling news coverage, Beirut was a footnote in most bulletins, which has prompted a renewed debate as to whether or not, in western eyes, there’s a hierarchy of victims.
While there’s no black or white answer to that, it didn’t help to improve people’s understanding of the huge impact the Syrian crisis is having on its neighbours who, for the most part, are as fervently anti-ISIS as your average Daily Mail and Daily Express reader.
Almost the world in miniature, Beirut is home to 18 recognised religious sects including two million Christians, a million and half Sunni Muslims, slightly more Shia, 500,000 Palestinians and now, by some estimates, as many as a million Syrians fleeing the conflict that’s raging 100kms to the east.
Largely peaceful since the curtailment of the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war, the Lebanon has yet to afford them employment rights, meaning that many are living in conditions of extreme poverty.
Some women have been forced to engage in ‘survival sex’ prostitution to provide for their families.
One of the agencies on the ground in both the Lebanon and Syria, where there are 12.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, is Concern.
The priorities are shelter, clean water, sanitation and education. Next week, Hot Press’ Stuart Clark will be travelling to the Lebanon with Concern to meet some of the refugees, see their various projects in action and take the pulse of a country whose infrastructure is in danger of collapse.
Stuart will be bringing you a daily Beirut blog on hotpress.com and then compiling an in-depth report for the 2016 Hot Press Annual.
Much has been made of the refugee crisis in Europe, but really it’s the Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan who are most affected with the majority of fleeing Syrians wanting to stay as close as possible to home in case there’s a chance of returning.
With snow and subzero temperatures coming soon to the Akkar region of the Lebanon where 110,000 refugees are in need of emergency winter supplies, Concern will soon be launching a special Christmas appeal. Stay tuned for details!

Photo: Syrian children living in an informal settlement near the Lebanese city of Halba