Lebanon’s Economy Reels From War: ‘We Are Starting From Zero’

Weeks after Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, Hasan Raad went from a decent job and a comfortable life to unemployment and displacement.

The 28-year-old content creator had finished building his production studio in the capital, Beirut, and was saving to buy a secondhand Mustang convertible. As war enveloped the country, he began using his savings to help friends and family and for donating to the displaced. He could not get into his studio for weeks, and his clients, including celebrities, furniture brands and restaurants, dried up.

Then, an Israeli airstrike hit his family’s apartment building south of Beirut, leaving them homeless.

“We came out of this war with nothing,” Mr. Raad said on a recent afternoon while sitting near the crumbled home. “We are starting from zero.”

Lebanon, a small Mediterranean nation still scarred by a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, has trudged from one devastating crisis to another in recent years. A debilitating economic meltdown beginning in 2019, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic, cratered the currency and evaporated investments. A blast at the Beirut port in 2020 killed more than 200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.