Beirut residents gather around a destroyed building. More than a million people in Lebanon have fled their homes due to Israeli airstrikes Peace and Security
More than a million people in Lebanon have been forced to flee their homes as Israeli airstrikes continue across the country, with a residential area in central Beirut hit early Monday. The Israeli attacks have killed 105 people since Sunday, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, raising fears of a full-scale invasion.
Healthcare system under attack
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that 11 health workers were killed and 10 wounded between Sept. 17 and 28. Some 37 health centers were forced to close due to the fighting (out of a total of 317), and three hospitals that were treating patients were evacuated.
“Many health workers have been displaced, particularly in the south, Bekaa and South Beirut,” WHO said.
The organization continues to support the response to public health emergencies by providing human, financial and technical assistance and building trauma surgery capacity.
Exodus to Syria
Meanwhile, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), about 100,000 displaced people have arrived in neighboring Syria.
“The exodus continues,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said on his social media page networks X.
Grandi noted that the agency’s teams are at four checkpoints in Syria and are providing support to those arriving.
The exodus of residents from the country followed a sharp escalation in fighting between the Israeli military and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militant group, whose leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an airstrike on Friday.
Hamas said on Monday that its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sherif al-Amin, had been killed along with his family in an airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp.
Humanitarian Aid
UN humanitarian agencies continue to provide aid to the Lebanese. The UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) has opened nine shelters with a capacity of 3,350 people.
“UNRWA provides assistance in these shelters on the basis of impartiality and non-discrimination, welcoming Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian refugees, supporting all those in need,” said UNRWA representative in Lebanon Fadi El Tayyar.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that 90 per cent of the one million displaced people fled their homes in the past week alone.
“Population displacement now exceeds levels seen during the 2006 war. It is caused by intensive Israeli strikes and orders to evacuate civilians,” OCHA said in a statement on Platform X.
Read also: