600,000 Lebanese internally displaced by Israel’s offensive, UN says
Figure includes 350,000 children; ‘catastrophic’ humanitarian crisis compounded by strikes on roads where IDF says Hezbollah is smuggling in Iranian arms
UN officials warned Wednesday that Lebanon was staring down a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis as the number of internally displaced people hit 600,000 and Israel presses its offensive against the Hezbollah terror group.
“Lebanon finds itself facing a conflict and a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions,” Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon, told a briefing.
She expressed “hope that Israel too will now be ready to add its support to the many calls and appeals that are out there” for de-escalation.
But as fighting raged, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon could face “a long war… like we see in Gaza.”
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, Imran Riza, said Lebanon was facing “one of the deadliest periods” in its recent history, reporting that 600,000 people are internally displaced — over 350,000 of whom are children.
“Even wars have rules,” he said.
Israel has also targeted access roads, saying Hezbollah was using them to smuggle Iranian arms. The strikes have made all the more difficult the plight of thousands of people who continue to flee Lebanon every day.
Danny Danon, Jerusalem’s envoy to the UN, said Israel’s strikes “are not targeting civilians.”
“But at the same time, if we will find Hezbollah activities or intention to launch rockets into Israel, we will do what any other country would do about it,” he added.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of dozens of Lebanese localities amid the fighting.
Hezbollah-led forces have attacked Israel’s north with rockets and drones on a near-daily basis since October 8, 2023, one day after its ally Hamas led a brutal onslaught in southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 251. The terror group says its missile fire, which has forced the evacuation of many northern communities, is in support of Hamas.
Pledging to make it safe for its 60,000 displaced northern residents to return home, Israel has intensified airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon since September 23, decimating the terror group’s top command. IDF forces crossed into Lebanon on September 30.
According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed more than 2,000 people over the past year, most of them in the past two weeks. The figure does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, of whom the IDF says it has killed hundreds.