Lebanese Americans Raise Funds for Civilians Displaced by Israel-Hezbollah War

Mirvet Makki, 47, sets aside earnings from her catering business in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, each week to assist people displaced by the war between Israel and Hezbollah. She cooks Lebanese dishes including couscous stews and traditional kibbeh balls after immigrating to Michigan in 1990 from her childhood village of Bint Jbeil in southern Lebanon.

The latest round of fighting has displaced more than 1 million people, roughly one in every six Lebanese, and killed more than 3,500.

Israel’s invasion into Lebanon is its deepest in more than a quarter-century. A destroyed building hit in an Israeli airstrike was seen at the Jabal Amel Hospital in the southern port city of Tyre on Monday, June 1, 2026. Residents fled following an Israeli threat to strike Dahiyeh, Beirut’s southern suburbs, the same day.

So I used my business,” Makki said. ” Makki visited Lebanon in February and observed that prices had risen sharply, with $200 barely paying for a dinner out where it previously covered a car rental and hotel room. S.

4 million. U.S. dates to the late 1800s. Lebanon’s population is about equally split between Sunni Muslim, Shiite Muslim and Christian denominations, along with a smaller Druze community.

The global Lebanese diaspora sends billions of dollars back to Lebanon each year. “There is really no Lebanese homeland without the Lebanese diaspora,” Edward Curtis, director of Arabic Studies at Indiana University, said. ” Marwa Mussa and Maya Attoui discussed plans for a fundraiser at a coffee shop in Dearborn on May 29, 2026.

U.S. in 2006 and whose parents still live in Beirut, said she does not have enough money to spare to support her numerous relatives but hopes the event will generate far more funds. “We don’t feel like talking, we don’t feel like cooking in our houses,” Attoui said.