FLASH
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The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has said Lebanon is facing a "humanitarian catastrophe" with more than 1 million people having fled their homes following Israeli attacks.
Since the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intensified their offensive in Lebanon earlier this month, responding to rockets fired across the border by the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group, about a fifth of Lebanon's population has been displaced.
And since Israeli attacks destroyed several bridges in southern Lebanon, more than 150,000 people have been isolated from the rest of the country, severely limiting humanitarian access, Caroline Lindholm Billing, UNHCR representative in Lebanon, told a UN press conference today.
“Even in displacement, people no longer feel safe. Families live in constant fear and the psychological consequences, especially on children, will last long beyond the current conflict ,” Billing said, citing one case of an Israeli attack that landed a block away from a refugee shelter.
She added that many of Lebanon's refugees are fleeing their homes for the second or third time, often returning to the same shelters they went to in 2024 when the IDF occupied the south of the country.
Most of these shelters, often schools, are overcrowded and stretched beyond their capacity, limiting access to sanitation and exacerbating the stress and trauma of displacement.
“The elderly and those with disabilities are particularly affected, who have difficulty sleeping on classroom floors or using designated children’s facilities. People keep telling me the same thing: they just want to go home ,” Billing said.
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