Lebanon crisis: 90,000 displaced in past 72 hours, refugee agency warns
Just hours earlier, the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned female Security Council that thing “Hell is breaking out in Lebanon” along the UN-patrolled line of separation, with gunfights of greater scale, depth and intensity than before.
That warning came as US President Joe Biden told world leaders gathered at United Nations headquarters on Wednesday that total war could occur between Hezbollah and Israel, while the UN refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for RefugeesPeople flee from Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets early Thursday morning, in response to attacks on Israel, including the first attempted rocket attack on Tel Aviv.
Peacekeeping chief warns of ‘extreme danger’
In a video message released on Thursday in New York, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said: “I am deeply concerned by the sudden escalation along the Blue Line. As the Secretary-General said last night at the Security Council, ‘Hell is breaking out in Lebanon and we should all be on guard against this escalation.’”
He stressed that both the Lebanese and Israeli people “are in extreme danger, with hundreds dead and thousands injured in recent days alone. Regional security and stability are at stake.”
“Literally thousands of Syrian and Lebanese families are crossing into Syria… women, children, men,” The UNHCR representative in Syria, Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, said the Israeli army had struck more than 70 targets overnight in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and southern Lebanon, both areas believed to be Hezbollah strongholds.
Border tensions
Standing amid vehicles loaded with belongings strapped to their roofs and countless people lining up on the Syrian side of the border, Mr Vargas Lllosa said UNHCR was working with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent to provide water, food, blankets and mattresses – “because many of them will have to spend the night here at the border while they are processed”.
A 21-day ceasefire proposal by the United States, European allies including France and several Arab countries was rejected by members of Netanyahu’s government, media reports said.
Latest data from Lebanon’s Interior Ministry shows that 70,100 internally displaced people are now registered at 533 government-run centres. About 500,000 people have been displaced by months of fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanese authorities say.
UNHCR said it is continuing to work closely with the authorities and other humanitarian organizations to provide relief to those displaced inside Lebanon.Our teams are on standby to help the many civilians who have fled the airstrikes, providing shelter, health care and psychosocial support,” the United Nations agency said on Thursday.
Expressing solidarity with those affected by the strikes, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, appealed to “add more shelter and more money” to provide critical assistance to those in need. “We are on the ground distributing emergency hygiene kits, blankets, sleeping bags and respect kits at evacuation shelters. Our team is working tirelessly to support displaced families.”
Citing information from Lebanese authorities, UNHCR said more than 90,000 people have been displaced since September 23 and “more and more are leaving their homes”.
Recent clashes have killed more than 600 people and injured 1,835.
