Over 880,000 people displaced by hostilities in Lebanon, food security deteriorating: UN

Photo taken on November 19, 2024 shows destroyed houses in a village in southern Lebanon, seen from the northern Israeli border. (Ayal Margolin/JINI via Xinhua)

United Nations humanitarian workers said Thursday that evacuation orders and airstrikes had forced more than 880,000 people from their homes in Lebanon and more than 500,000 of them fled to Syria.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said those remaining in Lebanon faced worsening food security.

The International Organization for Migration reported that more than 880,000 people were displaced within the country, including more than 20,000 migrants who were forced to leave both their homes and their jobs.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that more than 500,000 people left Lebanon for Syria and that more than half of them were children. UNHCR supports them, including through psychosocial support, to deal with the trauma and emotional effects of displacement.

OCHA recalled that civilians must be protected regardless of their decision to remain in their homes or flee.

The office also said that the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned that food security in Lebanon was expected to worsen.

“The ongoing escalation of the conflict since September 2024 has significantly disrupted supply chains and exacerbated food insecurity, now affecting more than 1.2 million people,” WFP and FAO said. “With almost a quarter of the Lebanese population already suffering from insufficient food consumption, the situation will only worsen as food prices remain high.”

For example, according to OCHA, since September this year, WFP has deployed 12 convoys to deliver food to more than 65,000 people, mainly in the Southern and Baalbek-Hermel governorates, in response to the difficult food security situation.