Wael Makke, 20, checked his phone for the news from Lebanon every couple of minutes for the past three months. One time, he saw a missile hit a block near house.
But last week, when the ceasefire was announced, he finally relaxed and slept well.
“It was incredibly hard to see my friends and family get bombed every day while I was safe here,” said Makke.
Makke’s reaction was common to Lebanese students studying far from home during the war between their home country and Israel. The computer engineer is planning on going back home because of the news.
“I finally intend to return home to spend Christmas and New Year’s with my family. I hope we can move forward and put this tragic moment behind us,” he said.
19-year-old Lea Khalil is anxious every morning and worries about her family in Lebanon.
Khalil, a business student in Paris, stated, “I wake up every day with a sense of anxiety, constantly asking myself if everyone back in Lebanon is okay.”
Although there is some optimism for peace due to the recent ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, the distance and uncertainty still overwhelm many Lebanese students studying outside the country.
Khalil claims that the unpredictability ruined her plans to celebrate Christmas with her family.
“Not being able to spend the holidays with them is quite difficult. I miss the joy and warmth of family reunions, but it now seems impossible,” she said.
Antoine Chakhtoura, 21, a psychology student in Lebanon, viewed the ceasefire as an enjoyable break from the chaos.
“It finally meant some stability in a country filled with chaos,” Chakhtoura said.
He did, however, admit that there is uncertainty about what might occur next and that it has been especially difficult to balance academic demands with family obligations.
“When exams came closer, the tension of the situation became excessive. The hardest thing is not knowing what to expect,” he said.
But for others, hope has been reduced by the uncertainties.
“I was happy about the ceasefire, but now we don’t know in which direction things are going,” said 21-year-old computer engineering student Selim Khalil, who has chosen to remain in Madrid until the situation stabilizes.
To first-comers, like 18-year-old Alexander Nassar, the situation in Lebanon felt distant.
“Honestly, my family and friends weren’t affected, so I didn’t really care and wasn’t afraid,” Nassar said.
Fear only struck him when he considered the possibility of the airport closing, potentially preventing him from returning to Beirut. He said that this was his first time being away and he misses everything about Lebanon, adding that as long as there are flights “you can find me in Beirut”.
The ceasefire sparked relief for 18-year-old Celine Safa, who hasn’t visited Lebanon since Christmas.
Safa has family and friends in Lebanon, although she lives in the United States, and some of them have been severely affected.
“My family has been affected the most since they live in the South, so they all had to move out, and some had to flee the country,” she said.
Because of the time difference, Safa remembers waking up in the middle of the night and seeing her parents using their phones to check the news or chat with loved ones in Lebanon.
Although it has been simpler to stay in touch with her family since relocating to Madrid, she still has little chance of returning to Lebanon.
“Of course I am happy that the war basically ended, at least until now, but all flights are fully booked even though they added so many more,” she said.
She added that she would have returned to the U.S. regardless, so “it didn’t really matter.”
