Today, families are stuck in a limbo.

They are scared and anxious and many of them are tired having escaped during the early morning hours to seek shelter as bombs destroy homes and airstrikes shake the city of Beirut.

Last month, in just eight minutes, more than 100 bombs were dropped on Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, killing at least 357 people and injuring 1,223 others.

Since March, the overall death toll has risen to more than 2,167 people, including 172 children, with over 7,000 people injured. Parts of Lebanon, especially the South are now completely inaccessible.

In St Joseph’s Jesuit church in Beirut, displaced families are being sheltered from Israel’s continued assault on the city. There they are provided food, a floor mattress and blankets for rest.

This is the second war in the country in less than two years, and the repeated cycles of conflict and displacement are causing intensely harmful psychological distress. Families live in constant fear; children are unable to sleep, and parents are struggling to provide even basic levels of safety.

At St Joseph’s the Jesuits are welcoming families, like Zahraa’s, a Sudanese refugee with two small children who fled during the night as bombs rained down on her neighbourhood.

Zahraa’s story is particularly potent; she came to St Joseph’s one year ago when Beirut faced war yet again and it was within the sanctuary of the church where she gave birth to her child.

Today Zahraa’s small family remain in the church like others fearful of so many unknowns and hoping for peace and the chance to have their lives returned to them.

Globally, this week is Day of Families, an international day to mark the importance of nurturing and loving families especially for those unfairly burden with poverty, inequality and the violence and destruction of war which shatters lives.

At IJI, along with Pope Leo, we are united with the Jesuits in Lebanon.

God does not answer the prayers of those who wage war and we call not just for ceasefire but peace and dialogue to prevent more senseless loss and heartbreak.

With YOUR help, we can continue to aid those trying to piece their lives back together.

Your donation can provide shelter, counselling and food and hygiene kits for displaced families like Zahraa’s.

Families that once again are at the mercy of violent world leaders.