Several U.N. agencies and international organizations warned Friday that the humanitarian situation in Lebanon is rapidly deteriorating as fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues after erupting on March 2.
At a press briefing in Geneva on Friday, UNICEF Representative in Lebanon, Marcoluigi Corsi, announced that in just three weeks, more than 370,000 children have been forced out of their homes in Lebanon, an average of at least 19,000 girls and boys displaced every single day.
“In less than a single month, roughly 20 percent of Lebanon’s population has been displaced. The speed and scale are staggering. Across the country, more than one million people are now uprooted—many for the second, third, or even fourth time. This is a sudden, chaotic mass displacement, tearing families apart and hollowing out entire communities, with consequences that will reverberate long after the violence subsides,” Corsi said.
Corsi reported that over 135,000 internally displaced persons are seeking refuge in over 660 collective shelters today, many of them children. “The living conditions are increasingly strained. Many displaced households are sheltering in informal, overcrowded, and unsafe settings, including unfinished buildings, public spaces, and vehicles. Lebanon’s economic crisis and weakened infrastructure were already limiting the country’s ability to respond to basic needs; today, that infrastructure is buckling under the pressure.”
The UNICEF representative stated that, to date, at least 121 children have been killed, and 395 have been injured. “Those who survive the bombardment are waking up to a dire humanitarian reality. We are seeing families fleeing with only the clothes on their backs, forced to move multiple times within days as repeated displacement orders are issued.”
Meanwhile, he said, essential civilian infrastructure – including hospitals, schools, bridges and water and sanitation systems – have been consistently attacked, damaged, or destroyed.
At the same time, Israeli strikes on bridges over the Litani River in southern Lebanon have isolated about 150,000 people from the rest of the country, according to the UNHCR.
“Frequent population displacements in the South and the southern suburbs of Beirut, in an environment of constant fear and pressure, cannot become the norm,” said Nicolas Von Arx, the ICRC’s regional director for the Near and Middle East, after meeting President Joseph Aoun.
“The humanitarian situation in Lebanon is deteriorating rapidly, and civilians are paying the highest price. It is imperative to protect civilians and ensure their safe return after the cessation of hostilities,” he added.
Meanwhile, officials from UN Women reported that due to the war, one in four women and girls in Lebanon has been forced to leave her home.
According to the latest figures released by Lebanese authorities on Thursday evening, 1,116 people have been killed and 3,229 injured in Israeli attacks since March 2.