UN warns of widening crisis as Israeli attacks displace 816,000 in Lebanon

UN humanitarian chief says mass displacement is accelerating as Lebanon’s shelters are already overcrowded, lack resources.

Lebanon faces “a moment of grave peril” as Israel continues to launch deadly attacks across the country, forcibly displacing hundreds of thousands of people, the United Nations humanitarian chief has warned.

Speaking to the UN Security Council in New York on Wednesday, Tom Fletcher said “mass displacement is accelerating” across Lebanon as a result of the Israeli attacks.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 3Lebanon stadium turned into shelter for forcibly displaced
• list 2 of 3Israel pounds Lebanon, targets residential building in central Beirut
• list 3 of 3Israeli air strike targets building in south Lebanon

“We’re seeing large-scale movements into densely populated urban areas where shelter capacity is already overstretched,” Fletcher said.

Hundreds of shelters “are overcrowded, with inadequate sanitation [and] insufficient essential supplies”, he told the council.

“These conditions heighten risk of harassment, sexual violence, exploitation, abuse [and] trafficking, particularly, of course, for women and girls.”

Lebanese authorities said more than 816,000 displaced people had been registered across the country since the intensified Israeli attacks began last week. Of those, 126,000 people were residing in 589 collective shelters.

Israel began carrying out intensified attacks on Lebanon last week after Hezbollah launched rockets towards Israeli territory following the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli attacks on February 28.

The Israeli military has launched a widespread aerial and ground assault against its northern neighbour, bombing areas across the country in what it says is a campaign against the Lebanese armed group.

Israel also has issued forced displacement orders for all of southern Lebanon, as well as the southern suburbs of the capital, Beirut, sowing chaos as thousands of families fled their homes under fear of attack.

At least 634 people have been killed and 1,586 others wounded in Israeli attacks so far, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Ministry of Health. The death toll includes dozens of women, children and paramedics.

On Wednesday afternoon, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a volunteer named Youssef Assaf was killed in the southern city of Tyre while carrying out humanitarian work.

“It is deeply alarming that first responders in Lebanon continue to risk their lives while carrying out a humanitarian mission,” ICRC said in a statement shared on X.

“Healthcare workers, hospitals, and other medical units, as well as ambulances and other transports exclusively assigned to medical duties or purposes, must be respected and protected.”

‘Whole world on fire’

Meanwhile, concerns are growing about the fate of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese civilians, particularly children, who have been displaced in recent days.

“It sounded like thunder,” a 10-year-old boy named Adam said of the attacks that forced him and his family to seek safety at a shelter in Beirut.

“It felt like the whole world was on fire,” Adam said in a video shared online by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). “My heart was pounding. I was crying in fear.”

Al Jazeera’s Bernard Smith, reporting from the Lebanese capital, noted that the vast majority of people who have been displaced are not in public shelters but are sleeping anywhere that can provide some protection.

That includes abandoned buildings and schools, as well as makeshift tent encampments along Beirut’s Corniche, Smith said. “For those displaced, [there is] no education for the children, no chance to go home, and no chance to get life back to normal.”

Othman Belbeisi, the Middle East and North Africa director at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said resources are limited as humanitarian agencies and the Lebanese authorities try to respond to the crisis.

“What we are seeing is that safe areas are becoming less [safe] … and more people are displaced in the streets,” Belbeisi told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

“Many of the displaced families left only with their clothes [on their backs],” he said. “They left everything at home; they ran out for their lives. There is fear and a high level of uncertainty.”