"St Joseph's Church in the Ashrafieh area of Beirut opened its doors to refugees and migrant workers forced to abandon their homes following ongoing Israeli airstrikes and now ground operations in the south. Footage filmed on Monday captures families with children seen playing outside. “The situation of migrant workers in Lebanon is always difficult and in a war it is even more difficult,” said Michael Pietro, head of shelter at the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS). “This church behind me was a shelter in 2024 as well. It was also managed by the Jesuit Refugee Service, and so we were able to draw an experience from the recent war to open up another shelter now for double capacity, we have almost 200 people here in the shelter,” he added. Ethiopian refugee, Sghini Shebini, explained: “The strikes started, so we were terrified. By 3:00 am, we fled. The roads were blocked so we traveled by motorcycle but it broke down on the way. We arrived exhausted and sick and came here the following day.” “Thank God, they provided us with a place to sleep and everything we needed. But honestly, this situation is not acceptable. There is also an ongoing war in Sudan, and here, there’s also war,” Khair Othman, a Sudanese refugee added. The US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28. Tehran responded with strikes on Israel and US assets in the region. The conflict soon widened to Israel and Hezbollah trading strikes across the border with Lebanon too - with the IDF confirming an expanded ground offensive this week. "