‘You feel utterly helpless’: Lebanese Australians watch in despair as Israeli bombardment forces families to flee

Every morning Mariam Nasereddine, from Sydney, checks for familiar names on a growing list of the dead as war intensifies in her native Lebanon Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast It was the first time Mariam Nasereddine had seen her friend’s newborn twins. The pair, just four days old, were lying in a plastic bread crate – a makeshift cot their mother had created. For weeks, the family has been sleeping on the floor in a school classroom in Mount Lebanon, filled with other families displaced by Israel’s attacks on the country. “When I saw them in that crate, I just started crying,” says Nasereddine, who lives in Sydney, as she recalls the video call with her friend. “I couldn’t look at them. It was too much.” Nasereddine is among members of Australia’s Lebanese diaspora facing a worsening psychological toll as the Israeli military invasion of the country intensifies. Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, this week said its army would occupy swathes of south Lebanon and destroy homes along the border, prompting concerns of long-term forced displacement. Katz drew a comparison to Gaza, where Israel’s military razed most homes in the te