As Israeli attacks on Lebanese territory continue, more and more civilians are being killed, injured and displaced. More than 2,100 people have died and more than 10,000 have been wounded in fighting in Lebanon over the past year, including hundreds of women and children. Most of them since September 23 this year. While an estimated 1.2 million people are internally displaced, more than 400,000 Lebanese and Syrians have reportedly fled to Syria.
UN humanitarian officials say Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified, but also expanded into previously unaffected areas and increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure. The densely populated capital, Beirut, has been increasingly targeted by Israeli airstrikes.
There have been repeated reports of critical civilian infrastructure being hit, including hospitals, clinics, ambulances, schools and residential buildings being destroyed or damaged. Overall, more than 100 medical and emergency workers have been killed across Lebanon since last October.
According to the Lebanese Ministry of Health, at least 22 people were killed and more than 100 injured Thursday night when the capital, Beirut, was bombed "in the heaviest strike yet on the central part of the city." The apparently indiscriminate attack reportedly targeted an undefended civilian building.
While indiscriminate attacks are per se a war crime, intentionally directing attacks against the civilian population or against individual civilians not directly taking part in hostilities is also a war crime, as is attacking or bombing homes or buildings that are undefended and are not military objectives.
On Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reiterated the urgent need for all parties to fully respect international humanitarian law.
“Parties must take constant care to spare civilians and civilian objects, including homes and essential infrastructure, throughout their military operations,” OCHA said in an update.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker TĂĽrk, also reminded all parties of their obligation to respect international humanitarian law or the rules of war with regard to the protection of civilians, civilian objects and infrastructure.
According to his spokesperson, any alleged violations must be subject to a prompt and thorough investigation, and those responsible must be held accountable if violations are found to have occurred.
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 in the midst of a complex humanitarian crisis due to several major socio-economic shocks, ongoing political instability, and a sharp deterioration of the economy.
Since October 2023, Lebanon has been confronted with a more severe humanitarian crisis, exacerbated by the escalation of military hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, particularly affecting southern Lebanon, Beirut, and its suburbs.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified and expanded its indiscriminate and large-scale aerial bombardment of Lebanon. Throughout the country, including Beirut, Israeli forces have carried out relentless aerial bombardments. On October 1, Israel launched an invasion of southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese people are bearing the brunt of this latest phase of the conflict. The recent escalation along the Blue Line, a demarcation line, is causing widespread destruction of towns and villages in southern Lebanon.
Following weeks of war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1701, which established a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon. Among other things, Resolution 1701 called on both Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent cease-fire and a comprehensive solution to the crisis.
On Thursday, two UN peacekeepers from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were injured after Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacked an observation tower at the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura.
According to the peacekeeping force, IDF soldiers also fired on the UN position in Labbouneh, hitting the entrance to the bunker where peacekeepers were sheltering and damaging vehicles and a communications system. On Wednesday, IDF soldiers deliberately fired at UN facilities, causing damage.
Addressing reporters during the ASEAN-UN summit in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, UN Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres "condemned the fact that there was shooting against the UN premises, wounding two peacekeepers, which is a violation of international humanitarian law."
Intentionally directing attacks against personnel, facilities, material, units or vehicles involved in a peacekeeping mission is considered a war crime.
“Peacekeepers must be protected by all parties of the conflict, and what has happened is obviously condemnable,” Guterres said.
The Secretary-General also voiced alarm at the escalating violence in Lebanon.
“What we are witnessing in Lebanon is a massive operation which strikes, heavy bombardments, obviously also with bombardments from the Hezbollah side, but that are causing dramatic number of civilians being killed,” he said.
“We see an enormous tragedy in Lebanon, and we must do everything to avoid an all-out war In Lebanon.”
Lebanon has been under constant bombardment since September 23, 2024. The escalating conflict is causing massive civilian casualties and population displacement due to the IDF's destruction of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, including health centers.
Essential services, including health care, are severely strained, with growing shortages of medical supplies and challenges to humanitarian access due to security concerns.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least 96 primary health care centers and dispensaries, as well as three hospitals, have been forced to close due to the conflict, severely limiting access to critical medical care in the surrounding areas. In addition, damage has been reported to at least ten hospitals across the country, with three hospitals fully evacuated and two partially evacuated.
More than 1.2 million people are estimated to be internally displaced, with many fleeing to shelters that lack basic resources; a large number of the displaced are now staying in overcrowded shelters, while the rest are either staying with family members or have found rented accommodation.
Nearly half of the displaced are children. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), approximately 690,000 people have been confirmed displaced as of Wednesday.
Humanitarian sources warn that while displacement continues, nearly three-quarters of the 1,000 designated shelters are at full capacity. In addition, assessments are underway to determine the needs of displaced people outside of shelters, particularly as the winter season approaches.
Meanwhile, UN agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) continue to support the humanitarian response.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has significantly scaled up its food assistance, reaching more than 169,000 people with food and cash assistance as of October 10. Out of the total, 130,000 displaced people in shelters have been reached with food assistance, covering about 70 percent of those in shelters.
Since September 27, WFP and its partners in Lebanon have distributed more than 1 million meals and more than 143,000 ready-to-eat kits to at least 440 designated shelters.
At the same time, WFP is working in Syria to provide food assistance to more than 250,000 people - Lebanese and Syrians - who have crossed from Lebanon; the UN agency has already reached 100,000 people.
WFP says it is prepared to assist up to one million people, but stresses the need for ports and supply routes to remain open as well as additional funding. Significant funding shortfalls are threatening the UN agency's ability to maintain food assistance to people affected by the latest escalation.
On Friday, United Nations human rights officials warned that the widening conflict and military escalation throughout the Middle East are putting “the lives and well-being of potentially millions of people across the region at risk” and diminishing prospects for peace.
“I’m having trouble finding the right words today to just describe how terrible this situation has been for civilians” on the ground in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel and Syria, Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner Human Rights, told journalists at a media briefing in Geneva Friday.
“This is going to have an impact that will reverberate across many generations of people in the Middle East,” she said.
“Children who have been out of school for so long, children who have had their limbs amputated, who will be living with lifelong injuries, as well as the trauma of the impunity that has marked this conflict, means that it is going to continue to feed cycles of revenge and injustice.”
“Amidst this escalating violence, we are appalled by sweeping inflammatory language on multiple sides,” Shamdasani said.
“Recent language threatening Lebanese people as a whole and calling on them to either rise up against Hezbollah or face destruction like Gaza” risks being understood as encouraging violence against civilians and civilian objects, “in violation of international law,” she said.
Shamdasani was referring to a threat made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a televised address on Wednesday.
She said that “ongoing denigration of the UN, in particular UNRWA, is unacceptable. This kind of toxic rhetoric, from any source, must stop.”
UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. The UN agency operates in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
On October 3, UNRWA launched a US$27.3 million flash appeal to meet urgent humanitarian needs over the next three months as a result of the ongoing escalation in Lebanon and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from Lebanon to Syria.
On October 1, the UN and humanitarian partners, together with the Government of Lebanon, launched a Flash Appeal to address the rapidly escalating humanitarian needs in the country. The US$426 million appeal aims to provide humanitarian assistance to 1 million people over the coming three months.