More than one million people across Lebanon have been displaced by ongoing and deadly Israeli airstrikes across the country, with more than 1,000 killed in the past two weeks, raising fears of an imminent full-scale invasion. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), some 100,000 of those displaced have fled to neighboring Syria.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday that civilians continue to bear the brunt of the recent escalation of violence in Lebanon, with a devastating and growing human toll. Intense Israeli attacks and evacuation orders have triggered huge waves of displacement.
While figures are still being tallied, Lebanese authorities estimate that more than 1 million people have been displaced, 90 percent in the past week. The displacement, which was triggered by intense Israeli strikes and orders to evacuate civilians, now surpasses the weeks-long 2006 war,
While the numbers are expected to rise, the number of people crossing into Syria has now surpassed 100,000.
"The outflow continues," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said in a message posted on social media on Monday.
Grandi noted that the agency's teams are on the ground at four crossing points inside Syria to assist new arrivals. The Syrian Red Crescent, along with national authorities, is also present at the crossing points to provide support.
According to the government, more than 150,000 newly displaced people - half of them women and children - are being housed in 800 collective shelters. Hundreds of schools have been converted into shelters for the displaced, and public education facilities in Beirut and Mount Lebanon have reached capacity, according to the Ministry of Education.
OCHA said in a statement today that airstrikes in recent days have impacted civilians and civilian infrastructure. On Sunday, national health authorities reported 105 deaths and 359 injuries. Residential areas and medical facilities have also been targeted, and 19 medics have been killed in the past two days, according to health officials.
The total number of those killed now stands at 1,640, most of them killed since last Monday, while more than 8,000 have been injured since October 8 last year.
Humanitarian aid inside Lebanon is being provided by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), among others. UNRWA has opened seven emergency shelters for more than 1,400 people, and the agency continues to provide critical health, sanitation and protection services to those in need.
WFP announced on Sunday that it has launched an emergency operation to provide food assistance to up to one million people affected by the recent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon. The UN agency is distributing ready-to-eat food rations, bread, hot meals and food parcels to families in shelters across the country.
“A further acceleration of the conflict this weekend underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian response. This comes after thousands of people had already been displaced, compounding the fragility of a population burdened by accumulated crises,” the WFP statement said.
WFP has reached more than 66,000 people in shelters across the country. It has been working with donors and partners for several months to pre-position food in strategic areas across the country, and has been able to significantly scale up its assistance thanks to extensive preparations.
“In just a few days WFP assistance has reached thousands of newly displaced people,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Country Director in Lebanon.
“As the crisis deepens, we are preparing to assist up to one million people through a mix of cash and food support. However, we urgently need additional resources to sustain and scale up our response.”
To continue these critical operations, WFP urgently needs US$105 million until the end of the year and is calling on the international community to mobilize resources and support the humanitarian response.
According to OCHA, a UN Flash Appeal will be launched on Tuesday to mobilize additional resources to meet the growing needs of 1 million people affected by the ongoing crisis.
“Lebanon is at a breaking point and cannot endure another war,” said Corinne Fleischer, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe.
“A further escalation would be highly detrimental to the people of this region, who have gone through so much already. Additionally, it would massively stretch the humanitarian community’s collective operational and financial capacities.”
With the resources currently available, the UN agency can scale up to reach up to one million people affected by the latest escalation for one month.
“WFP is on the ground, but we urgently need funds. More urgently, the people in the region need peace”, Fleischer said.
“Amid the increase in civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, we call upon the international community to urgently promote de-escalation and ensure that all parties respect international humanitarian law, while prioritizing immediate humanitarian assistance to the affected people”, OCHA said today.
Since Monday last week, hostilities in Lebanon have been massively escalated by Israel, with thousands of air strikes carried out across Lebanese territory. The escalation of the war has caused significant civilian casualties and injuries, as well as mass displacement. The rapidly evolving situation is putting a heavy strain on the already overstretched health and shelter sectors.
Prior to the recent deterioration of the situation across Lebanon, the country was already experiencing a protracted humanitarian crisis. Since late 2019, Lebanon has been experiencing a complex crisis due to several major socio-economic shocks, ongoing political instability, and a sharp deterioration of the economy.
In the early hours of September 23, a large-scale military operation launched by Israel in Lebanon resulted in the country's deadliest day since the end of the civil war in 1990.
The new Israeli attacks, which extended into areas not previously involved in the conflict, caused widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure. Since October 7, hostilities along the Israeli-Lebanese border between armed groups - including Hezbollah - and the Israeli military have had a devastating impact on the civilian population.
Hezbollah and Israel had been engaged in hostilities, mostly confined to southern Lebanon and northern Israel, following attacks by Palestinian armed groups inside Israeli territory last October. As of September 10, the total death toll from Israeli attacks in Lebanon had risen to 589. Hezbollah has said it would cease hostilities if a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.
Prior to the September escalation, more than 110,000 people in Lebanon had been displaced by the fighting in the south; at least 60,000 people in northern Israel have been displaced by the ongoing violence and rocket attacks by Lebanese armed groups, including Hezbollah.