Lebanon escalation: UN boosts support at border with Syria

“Hundreds of vehicles are backed up in queues at the Syrian border; many people are also arriving on foot, carrying what they can,”UNHCR reported. “Large crowds, including women, young children and babies are waiting in line after spending the night outdoors in falling temperatures. Some carry fresh injuries from the recent bombardments.”

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said that the news was “yet another ordeal for families” who had fled years of civil war in Syria, “only now to be bombed in the country where they sought shelter…The Middle East cannot afford a new displacement crisis. Let us not create one by forcing more people to abandon their homes.”

Mr. Grandi’s appeal follows heavy Israeli shelling of Lebanon on Monday that has killed at least 558 people - including children and women – and injured 1,835, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health.

The strikes followed a weekend of rocket attacks on Israeli communities that came in response to last week’s extraordinary series of explosions of pagers and walkie-talkies belonging to Hezbollah members – the latest deadly development linked to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Leaving ‘by the minute’

More than 27,000 people have been displaced over the past 48 hours and people have been “abandoning their homes by the minute”, UNHCR said.

Latest UN data points to at least 90,530 newly displaced people in Lebanon in addition to the nearly 112,000 uprooted since October 2023.

Together with partners including the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the UN agency is present at the border crossings with Syria “providing food, water, blankets and mattresses to those arriving, and guiding them towards support available once in Syria”.

Lebanon hosts around 1.5 million Syrian refugees who left their country during the ongoing civil war which has left critical infrastructure in tatters and millions in need of assistance.

Mass displacement linked to war

In a situation update on the Lebanon crisis, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, noted that more than 110,000 people have already been displaced since October last year.

By late Tuesday evening, more than 25,000 people had found shelter in 130 new collective shelters, according to Government figures cited by OCHA. “The situation is fluid and the UN is working with national authorities and partners to track and register newly displaced people,” it said.

Other UN agencies supporting the relief effort include UNICEF, which has delivered 100 tons of emergency medical supplies to hospitals facing severe shortages “and will send more”.

$170 million needed to sustain support

The UN agency is also preparing to deliver food, water and essential supplies such as mattresses and hygiene kits to displaced families.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP), meanwhile, said that it was ready to provide daily hot meals for up to 100,000 people in shelters.

Sustaining these efforts will require funding of $170 million, the humanitarian agencies said.

Outrage at UN staff members killed

In a related development, the UN refugee agency expressed outrage and deep sadness at the killing of two staff members in the Lebanon strikes.

The first victim, Dina Darwiche, died along with her youngest son after the building where she lived with her family in east Lebanon was hit by an Israeli missile on Monday. Their bodies were recovered on Tuesday, her husband and one of their children sustained serious injuries and are being treated in hospital.

Ali Basma, the second victim, had worked for the UN agency in the city of Tyre for seven years. He was confirmed dead on Monday, UNHCR said, before expressing its outrage at the deaths.

“The protection of civilians is a must, and we reiterate the Secretary-General’s call for urgent de-escalation, and calls on all parties to protect civilians, including aid workers, in line with obligations under international humanitarian law,” the UN agency said.