There is a nondescript, rundown complex of concrete buildings in Beirut's Sabra neighborhood, steps beyond the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. It is one among hundreds of such buildings there, slowly decaying amid piles of garbage and a spiderweb of side streets.

Inside, little cats scurry through dark halls blackened by mold. Water drips from tiny white ceiling stalactites of salt hardened by time. It pools on the floor. In one nook above an ancient stairwell sits, inexplicably, a fully functioning corner-shop fridge shilling juice and Pepsi.

The hallways are said to hold ghosts, too.

They lurk among the living. Hundreds of people, most of them Palestinian refugees, call these four conjoined buildings home, squatting informally in rooms that line the damp hallways.

This was once the Gaza Hospital, a Palestinian Red Crescent-run facility and a former beacon of healthcare for Palestinians and Lebanese alike.

Fifty years since the start of Lebanon's civil war, we revisit one of its haunts.

Words by Madeline Edwards with my photography for Inkstick Media.

#beirut #beyrouth #lebanon #lebanese #middleeast #Shatila #sabra #sabraandshatila #refugees #refugeecamp #gaza #GazaHospital #Palestinian #Palestine #war #civilwar #joaosousaphotos #fujifilm #fujifilm_global #fujifilmxpt

There is a nondescript, rundown complex of concrete buildings in Beirut's Sabra neighborhood, steps beyond the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp. It is one among hundreds of such buildings there, slowly decaying amid piles of garbage and a spiderweb of side streets.

Inside, little cats scurry through dark halls blackened by mold. Water drips from tiny white ceiling stalactites of salt hardened by time. It pools on the floor. In one nook above an ancient stairwell sits, inexplicably, a fully functioning corner-shop fridge shilling juice and Pepsi.

The hallways are said to hold ghosts, too.

They lurk among the living. Hundreds of people, most of them Palestinian refugees, call these four conjoined buildings home, squatting informally in rooms that line the damp hallways.

This was once the Gaza Hospital, a Palestinian Red Crescent-run facility and a former beacon of healthcare for Palestinians and Lebanese alike.

Fifty years since the start of Lebanon's civil war, we revisit one of its haunts.

Words by Madeline Edwards with my photography for Inkstick Media.

#beirut #beyrouth #lebanon #lebanese #middleeast #Shatila #sabra #sabraandshatila #refugees #refugeecamp #gaza #GazaHospital #Palestinian #Palestine #war #civilwar #joaosousaphotos #fujifilm #fujifilm_global #fujifilmxpt

It is a story repeated thousands of times over for the children of Eastern European mothers and Lebanese fathers: In the 1990s, Miriam's father went to study at a university in Ukraine. There, he met Kcenia and fell in love.

In their case, Kcenia was an Orthodox Christian while Miriam's father was a Shia Muslim with roots in south Lebanon. Kcenia would end up converting to Islam. Back then, there were precious few mosques in Kyiv - and no halal grocery stores. Now, there are about 5,000 Ukrainian citizens in Lebanon, Ukraine's Charges d'Affaires Ovcharov Oleksandr tells me, "mostly Ukrainian women and their children." That's on top of the many Russian and other Eastern European citizens who came here via marriage, or are the children of such relationships.

Words by Madeline Edwards, with my photography for Inkstickmedia

#ukraine #Ukrainian #lebanon #lebanese #middleeast #war #ukrainewar #inkstick #joaosousaphotos #photojournalism #fujifilm #fujifilm_global #fujifilmxpt

#odenplan #subway #stockholm #sweden #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #fujifilm #fujifilmxpro2 #xpro2 #fujifilm_global #streetphotography