Fears grow that Lebanon may become another Gaza, say UN humanitarians

“It's impossible to meet the needs of more than a million people who have been suddenly uprooted, displaced and dispossessed without additional resources coming in,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Country Director in Lebanon (From Beirut): “This was not a country that was well prepared because of all of the challenges that it's faced over the past years. So, it's going to be a struggle.”

One week since the UN launched a $426 million appeal to help those affected by the Lebanon crisis, contributions have reached just over 12 per cent, or $51.4 million.

Aid teams are committed to helping all those in need and particularly the most vulnerable, but Mr. Hollingworth warned that many of those uprooted by the rapid escalation in fighting had little choice but to leave their homes with nothing.

Uprooted in a moment

“[We’ve had] horrific cases of forced evacuation notices coming out with few hours for people to prepare and depart,” Mr. Hollingworth said.

Families displaced over the past year “who had prepared themselves…are far, far better off than the much greater majority today who have left in some cases with only hours to spare before their areas have come under bombardment.”

Amid intense Israeli bombardment of Beirut and southern Lebanon linked to the war in Gaza, the seven districts in frontline areas south of the country bordering Israel and Beirut’s southern suburbs have emptied of “hundreds of thousands of people”, the veteran aid worker reported. “Many of these towns, villages and suburbs [are] now nothing more than rubble.”

Paying the ultimate price

After COVID-19 and the devastating port explosion in Beirut in 2020, poverty levels have soared in the country that has struggled to host more than a million Syrian refugees, amid a long-running political crisis.

In a fresh appeal to halt the violence in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond, Jeremy Laurence from the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said that civilians continue to pay “the ultimate price, whether it be the hospitals being closed, a million people displaced, civilians killed, schools impacted; the devastation is beyond belief for all people in Lebanon as it is in Gaza. We can't let this happen again.”

Shelters ‘choc-a-block’

More than 200,000 people now live in the 973 formal shelters located inside Beirut and the north of country, according to WFP. Some 773 of these “are absolutely choc-a-block full”, Mr. Hollingworth said, adding that people in the south had decided to move not only because their land and homes had been destroyed, but because they had lost “family and friends and communities and they are extraordinarily fearful of what comes next”.

The aid agency update comes amid reported renewed rocket fire at the northern Israeli city of Haifa by Hezbollah on Tuesday. The armed group has been firing rockets at northern Israel since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, displacing tens of thousands of Israelis.  

Healthcare under attack

According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), 17 attacks on health care and healthcare workers since 16 September have left 65 dead and 42 injured.

More than 96 healthcare centres and health facilities have been forced to close in the south. Five hospitals are now not functioning “either due to physical or infrastructural damage”, said WHO’s Ian Clarke, Deputy Incident Manager for Lebanon.

Speaking via video from Beirut, he said that an additional four hospitals have been partially evacuated to maintain emergency services, with patients needing critical dialysis and cancer care referred to other hospitals.

UN humanitarians have insisted on the need to keep land, air and sea access open to Lebanon, which is dependent on imports for most of its needs.

A reported 1,900 hectares of agricultural land have been burned in the south of the country over the past year and “primarily in the last few weeks”, WFP’s Mr. Hollingworth said. In addition, 12,000 hectares of farmland in one of the most productive areas of the country have been abandoned and some 46,000 farmers have been impacted heavily by the crisis. “Olive harvests in the south will not happen, bananas, citrus harvests will not happen,” he noted.