‘Sad, mad and disheartened’: for the diaspora, the bombardment in Lebanon is a special kind of loss

Ali Hamka and his father Sami Hamka​ at home in Kingsgrove, Sydney. Their family’s ancestral home in southern Lebanon has been destroyed in bombing by Israeli forces. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

For the last two years, much of the Lebanese diaspora – estimated to be about 15 million people spread across Australia, Europe, North and South America and more – has held its breath. Much of it watched from afar, helpless, during the latest extended conflict between Hezbollah and Israel as Israeli attacks on their motherland, and particularly its southern villages, resulted in widespread destruction. To date, more than 1.2 million people have been displaced, thousands killed, and roughly 14.3% of Lebanese territory ordered to be vacated. But while those within the country endure their own suffering, those in the diaspora face a different, emotional struggle: the loss of familial homes they may not be able to return to, and a severing of connection to a place that is a fundamental part of who they are.

These are their stories.