The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon intensified again this week as more people were forced from their homes amid an expanding Israeli military operation that has killed hundreds. The latest figures show mass displacement accelerating quickly, prompting concern among humanitarian organizations on the ground.
The United Nations humanitarian chief warned on Wednesday that displacement is surging across the region as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran expanded to Lebanon and drew in Persian Gulf states after the initial attacks on Feb. 28.
Speaking to the UN Security Council in New York, Tom Fletcher said the UN is seeing “large-scale movements” into densely populated urban areas where shelter capacity is already overstretched.
Aid groups on the ground say the scale of the conflict — compared to 2024, before Hezbollah and Israel agreed to a ceasefire — is deeply concerning as bombardment intensifies, killing more people and forcing widespread evacuations.
Where are people fleeing?
Most civilians displaced in Lebanon have remained within the country, though some have fled to neighbouring states.
Lebanese authorities say more than 816,000 people have been displaced since intensified Israeli attacks began last week, with about 126,000 people staying in 589 collective shelters — including Beirut stadiums, schools and churches.
Jad El Dilati, a Bassem Sabry Democracy Fellow with Washington, D.C.-based Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, said a majority of those displaced have been forced to flee airstrikes and relocate elsewhere in Lebanon.
“We’re seeing an unprecedented wave of displacement given the amount of time,” El Dilati told CBC News. He said the figures are likely undercounted and do not reflect real-time conditions, given the amount of reports of evacuated areas on the ground.
“It’s the rate at which everything is happening that is concerning. We’re only 10 days into this war and south Lebanon is empty.”
El Dilati, who was born and raised in Nabatieh in southern Lebanon, said many people who were ordered to evacuate during the first wave of displacement on March 2 returned to their homes in danger zones because they could not find shelter or could not afford to stay elsewhere.
His family is among those forced to evacuate under threat of imminent bombing before their home was struck earlier this week.
“This war is having a disproportionate effect on civilians. Southern Beirut already looks like a post-apocalyptic ghost town,” he said.
Many displaced people have reported getting turned away by landlords, in some neighbourhoods or hotels — sometimes out of fear of being targeted by Israeli strikes, El Dilati said.
“The welcoming spirit that existed in 2024 from host communities is no longer there,” he said, speaking from Washington.
The UN says about 84,000 Syrians and more than 8,000 Lebanese have crossed into Syria since March 2. Local authorities say others are seeking refuge in Cyprus, Greece and Iraq.
“Those numbers are very, very worrying, and every day of the war pushes more people away from their homes and their communities,” Fletcher said. He added that Lebanon’s latest humanitarian crisis is one more consequence of a regional war that is “spiralling out of control.”
“War does not stay neatly within borders … the most vulnerable people in Lebanon and across the region are hit first – and hardest.”
El Dilati said some people have reportedly fled to Cyprus by yacht for what he described as “egregious prices,” while many others face uncertainty about when they might be able to return home.
Meanwhile, nearly 3.2 million people are estimated to be temporarily displaced within Iran since the Feb. 28 U.S.-Israeli attacks began, according to the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Ayaki Ito, the agency’s emergency chief, said preliminary estimates suggest that equals between 600,000 and one million households.
“Most of them are reportedly fleeing from Tehran and other major urban areas towards the north of the country and rural areas to seek safety,” Ito said in a statement Thursday. He said the figure is likely to rise as hostilities continue, marking a “worrying escalation” in humanitarian needs.
Ito said refugee families in Iran, mostly Afghans, are especially vulnerable given what he called their “already precarious situation and limited support networks.”
Some Iranians have also fled the country. CBC News spoke with Iranians who crossed into Turkey through border crossings as bombardment continued.
Lebanese flee homes as Israel expands operation
Israel has battered Lebanon’s south and east, along with Beirut’s southern suburbs. The death toll continues to rise, with 687 killed, including 98 children, 62 women and 18 medics. The toll does not otherwise distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Israeli strikes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight into Thursday, a Hezbollah stronghold where thousands have fled under evacuation orders in the past week. Widening Israel’s attacks to downtown Beirut, an airstrike hit a building in the Bachoura neighbourhood. Before the strike, the Israeli military issued a warning telling residents they were near a Hezbollah facility it intended to target, according to Reuters.
A pre-dawn strike on Thursday in another area of Beirut killed 12 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. It hit a seafront sidewalk where dozens of displaced families had set up tents and were sleeping out in the streets.
Mahmoud Kassem, a displaced man at the scene, said: “My heart is dead.”
Lebanon’s health minister says eight people were killed and at least 31 were injured in an Israeli drone strike targeting the vehicle of a Hezbollah commander in Corniche Beirut, a popular seaside promenade in central Beirut.
El Dilati said displaced people with nowhere to go had gone to the seafront where they were told it was safe.
“[They] were just displaced people who couldn’t find any other shelters, so they resorted to the beach as a last [option]. They were still targeted,” El Dilati said.
“We’re seeing collective punishment against the Lebanese population for decisions that they didn’t take. Many of [them] oppose Hezbollah’s decision to fire rockets into Israel. Instead of targeted attacks, we’re seeing mass civilian casualties.”
On Thursday, Israel’s defence minister said its military would expand operations in Lebanon in response to Hezbollah’s latest attack, which launched about 200 rockets into northern Israel. Reuters says Hezbollah has fired rockets and drones at Israel every day since March 2.
Israel Katz warned Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that if the Lebanese government could not prevent Hezbollah from attacking Israel, then Israel “would do it ourselves.”
At least two Israeli soldiers have so far been killed in Lebanon with several people injured in Israel from Hezbollah missiles, according to local authorities.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah was signed in November 2024, though Israeli attacks did not stop. Both sides accused one another of truce violations. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 397 people were killed in Israeli strikes after the ceasefire took effect and before Hezbollah launched its latest attacks.
‘Looming uncertainty’ in shelters
Rasha Abou Dargham, a spokesperson for the UN World Food Program in Lebanon, said schools that were supposed to reopen last week instead became shelters for families fleeing their homes “almost overnight.”
“When you visit these shelters, what you see is people trying to cope day by day,” Abou Dargham told CBC News on Tuesday.
“Families are sharing classrooms, children are sleeping where desks used to be. Parents are doing everything they can to create a sense of stability for their children.”
Since March 2, WFP has reached more than 200,000 people with hot meals, ready-to-eat food and bread, Abou Dargham said. Even before the latest escalation of Israeli attacks this month, about 900,000 people in Lebanon were estimated to be facing food insecurity.
The main challenge for aid groups, she said, is that needs are growing quickly and “already beginning to outpace our available resources.”
Dr. Firass Abiad, Lebanon’s former minister of public health, says Israel’s attacks in southern Lebanon have been ‘more indiscriminate’ than they were in 2024, leaving more civilians — including children — hurt. The displacement of more than 500,000 people is leading to a humanitarian crisis there, he says.
For families in shelters, Abou Dargham said the uncertainty is taking a toll — particularly for those displaced multiple times over the past two years.
“What we see … when we visit these shelters is the looming uncertainty that families are living through, the stories of mothers carrying their children not knowing where to flee in the streets,” she said.
