LBN: “On the roaring of the bus”

The Art Peace Bus brings the youngest Lebanese IDPs a glimpse of hope amidst the war situation in the South.
As war displaces thousands in southern Lebanon, the Art Peace Bus offers brief moments of escape for children like 10-year-old Hassan, who fled Beit Leif with his family in early October. Now sheltering in a repurposed school with over 1,000 others, Hassan finds relief in the bus that takes him and his siblings to the Grand Theatre of Tyre—a restored cinema turned creative sanctuary.
Since the escalation, over 94,000 people have been displaced, nearly a third of them children. “Children are getting used to the bombs,” says Murtada Muhna of Tyre’s Disaster Management Unit. “They’re becoming another war generation.”
Driven by Syrian refugee and photographer Houssam Khatab, the graffiti-covered bus brings laughter and energy as it winds through the streets of Tyre. “They escape the sound of bombs and enter a space of possibility,” he says, playing a Fairuz song to lift their spirits.
At the theatre gates, actor and director Kassem Istambouli welcomes the children with art, theater, and storytelling workshops. “Many have lost everything,” he says. “We try to break the cycle of war and offer art as a window of resilience.