Lebanon’s displaced celebrate Ramadan amid fears that border conflict might become the ‘new normal’

By ABBY SEWELL
Associated Press

MARWANIEH, Lebanon (AP) — About 60 families are celebrating the Islamic holy month of Ramadan at an abandoned hotel in southern Lebanon, far from their homes. The families staying at the Hotel Montana in the town of Marwanieh are among the roughly 90,000 people from Lebanon’s southern border region who have been displaced by the near-daily clashes between the militant group Hezbollah and Israeli forces. The shelling and airstrikes seem unlikely to end before a cease-fire is reached in Gaza. And even when that happens, some fear the clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border might become a depressing new normal.