“Lebanon’s humanitarian crisis is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Israeli airstrikes have not only intensified but also expanded into previously unaffected areas and increasingly targeted critical civilian infrastructure,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a situation update released Wednesday.
“Displacement orders for more than 100 villages and urban neighborhoods across southern Lebanon continue to force people to flee,” the report added.
On Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced Israel has carried out more than 1,100 airstrikes on southern Lebanon since its ground operations began earlier this month.
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Lebanon since Israel escalated its war on Hezbollah, according to the Lebanese health ministry. At least 1.2 million people have been displaced since fighting escalated last month, Lebanese authorities have said.
The country’s health sector has been put under “immense pressure of relentless attacks” on health facilities and personnel and its education sector faces “enormous challenges”, the OCHA report noted, with most schools having been repurposed into shelters.
