20 April 2024

Sidon, Lebanon – A small neighbourhood in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, also known as Saida, is a utopia when compared to the communities surrounding it.

The neighbourhood’s nearly 3,000 residents, most of whom are Palestinian, have access to a broad array of amenities now seldom seen in Lebanon, a country where public services have mostly dried up after years of economic crisis. 

Credit for the services in this Palestinian community goes to the armed group and political movement, Hamas.

Residents can fill up gallons of fresh drinking water four days a week. The streets are clean and well-lit at night. The community’s youth even have access to a recreation centre, equipped with football tables, punching bags, and a treadmill they can use free of charge.

Lebanon’s economic meltdown has hit Palestinian refugees in the country especially hard.

Before the crisis, the community faced systemic discrimination and legal barriers that left them unable to escape poverty. So, the help from Hamas is welcomed with open arms.

The movement has historically done well to provide basic social services on a small budget. 

Their social welfare networks in Gaza and the West Bank were a huge contributor to their election victory in Palestine in 2006. In Lebanon, Hamas’s popularity is now surging as the group fights the Israeli army in Gaza.

“We continue to serve our people with what we have and what we can do,” said a local Hamas leader in Sidon, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Abed Shanaa. 

“We will do anything that could benefit (the) Palestinian people,” the 53-year-old told Middle East Eye from an old parking garage in the neighbourhood, which he helped transform into a mosque.

The mosque has become a bustling community centre for the small Sidon community, holding regular prayers, youth programmes, and even weddings for those unable to afford a venue elsewhere.

As Abu Shanaa spoke to Middle East Eye during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, residents of the neighbourhood flowed in and out of the mosque. 

One boy entered to attend an Islamic education class, ongoing in an adjacent room. Another man came to ask Abu Shanaa when Ramadan food packages would be ready. 

Hamas, like other Palestinian parties in Lebanon, distributes monetary and food handouts during the Muslim holy month, although this year Abu Shanaa said the Ramadan handouts are smaller, with Hamas embroiled in the fight in Gaza. 

On top of collecting food packages for Ramadan, Abu Shanaa coordinates summer camps and athletic teams, runs fundraisers for those who are ill and who recently gave birth, and resolves disputes between families.

He has also organised multiple community infrastructure projects, all of which he said have helped draw “families closer” to the Hamas movement.