Most of the displaced -- who having nowhere else to go gathered at Ramlet al-Baida beach -- share the same look of anger.

"We fled from the suburbs, we were humiliated," one man tells AFP, refusing to give his name.

"We'll sleep on the road tonight and God alone knows what will happen to us."

Like most others nearby, he didn't bring anything with him from his home in the densely-populated southern suburbs, known locally as Dahiyeh, which saw scenes of panic and terror as residents fled en masse, according to AFP correspondents on the ground.

The area, considered a Hezbollah stronghold and home to an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people from all walks of life, experienced crippling traffic jams after the Israeli warning was issued.

As residents rushed to leave, gunfire sounded overhead, in lieu of a warning in the city with no public siren system.

Videos posted by local media and social media users showed hundreds of families leaving several neighbourhoods on foot, while roads were packed with cars and motorbikes.

Under a faint sun that did nothing to dispel the cold, the displaced -- among them women, children, and the elderly -- arrived at the beach however they could.

Some carried their children in their arms, while others dragging small suitcases or bags with a few basic items inside.

Asked for his thoughts, one man shouted: "The situation is shit! What more do I need to explain?"

- 'Why this war?' -

A few dozen metres away, sitting alone on the sand, a 61-year-old unemployed man named Yousef, or Abu Ahmad, told AFP of how he spent the last war between Hezbollah and Israel -- which ended in November 2024 -- sleeping in a tent on this very beach.

As the sun set, Abu Ahmad said he had lived through one war after another since his childhood.

It's "luck" that decides if you survive, he said, adding: "Only God, who created you, can take you."

His face marked by exhaustion, he draws a box in the sand with his fingers, representing land, nations and the world he was born into.

"Why this war?" he implored.

As he waits for the expected Israeli bombs to arrive, Abu Ahmad says he doesn't intend to spend the night out in the open: "Just now I was thinking of going back before the strikes arrive! What's the point?"

"I'm not afraid for my life because I'm alone," he said, having sent his family and children to Syria to keep them safe.

- 'A matter of luck' -

After the exodus from Beirut's southern suburbs, the official National News Agency reported Thursday that the area had become "almost empty".

The severe traffic congestion extended for hours into several neighbourhoods of Beirut, while institutions and companies rushed to shut their doors and send employees home before the end of the working day.

Before the warning to residents of Dahiyeh, Lebanese authorities had estimated the total number of displaced people since the start of Israeli strikes on Monday at more than 90,000.

With residents of the southern suburbs pouring into Beirut and Mount Lebanon, the government's Disaster Management Unit called on the displaced to head toward the east and north of the country, after closer shelters reached full capacity.

"Very soon Dahiyeh will resemble Khan Yunis," far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on Telegram, referring to the Gaza city devastated by Israeli bombing in the war triggered by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.

In a post on X, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said "large areas of Beirut's southern suburbs have been ordered to evacuate while people are still fleeing south Lebanon in large numbers".

"The country is living a new nightmare, but no side can impose a lasting solution by force."

ris-lar/jsa

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