What will become of the Lebanese displaced by intensifying Israel-Hezbollah conflict?

Analysis What will become of the Lebanese displaced by intensifying Israel-Hezbollah conflict?
Highways from the south were clogged with traffic as civilians tried to escape Israel’s bombardment of Hezbollah. (AFP)
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Updated 25 September 2024
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What will become of the Lebanese displaced by intensifying Israel-Hezbollah conflict?

What will become of the Lebanese displaced by intensifying Israel-Hezbollah conflict?
  • Israeli forces have struck multiple Hezbollah targets in recent days, forcing civilians in the south to flee northward
  • Hobbled by political deadlock and economic meltdown, Lebanon’s government is in no position to mount a significant relief effort

LONDON: Nearly half a million Lebanese civilians have been displaced from their homes in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley since Israel intensified its air campaign against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia this week, raising the prospect of a major humanitarian emergency.

In a country already grappling with a profound economic crisis, the exodus of thousands of civilians from towns and villages bordering Israel is stretching Lebanon’s limited resources and further destabilizing its fragile society.

The most pressing question on the minds of those fleeing, however, is whether their displacement will be temporary or permanent.




Areas such as Tyre, Sidon and Nabatiyeh have experienced a mass exodus. (AFP)

Indeed, villages closest to the border have been the most heavily damaged, with entire areas reduced to rubble. Israeli forces have been accused of creating a “dead zone” as a buffer between the two countries.

“We don’t think this is going to last only for a short duration,” Tania Baban, Lebanon country director of the US-based charity MedGlobal, told Arab News. “Some people may not be able to go home if their home is no longer standing.”

Since Hezbollah began rocketing northern Israel in solidarity with its Hamas allies following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, southern Lebanon has been transformed into a battleground, with Israel mounting retaliatory strikes.

The region, a stronghold for Hezbollah, has faced near daily bombardment, leaving towns and villages in ruins and devastating forests and farmland.

Lebanon’s foreign minister, Abdallah Bou Habib, has said that about 500,000 Lebanese have been displaced since Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah ramped up, with more than 110,000 fleeing prior to the recent escalation.

Areas such as Tyre, Sidon and Nabatiyeh have experienced a mass exodus. Some 70 percent of Tyre’s population has evacuated, according to the city’s mayor, Hassan Dbouk. “People could not tolerate it anymore,” he told the Washington Post.

Baban believes the official number of displaced is an underestimate. “We started distributing some much-needed basic items to the shelters on Tuesday, such as mattresses, towels, pillows, water and personal hygiene kits,” she said.

“We went to several schools to get their information and do our assessment, and there were displaced people flooding in, and this is only in Beirut.

“They’re mostly from the south. I’m sure Bekaa as well, but we don’t have those types of details yet, because people are still flooding in.”




The exodus of thousands of civilians from towns and villages bordering Israel is stretching Lebanon’s limited resources. (AFP)

Safa Kosaibani, 21, who fled from Nabatiyeh to the coastal city of Sidon with her daughters and sisters-in-law, said that she heard Israel was telling civilians to leave southern Lebanon, but did not trust the warnings.

“We thought it was just psychological warfare,” she told the Washington Post. “That they were just trying to push us to leave our land, because we pushed them away from their land in the north. They want to do the same to us.”

An estimated 60,000 or so Israelis are internally displaced from the other side. On Sept. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu updated his government’s war goals to include returning those people home.

Nour Hamad, a 22-year-old student in the Lebanese city of Baalbek, described living “in a state of terror” all week. “We spent four or five days without sleep, not knowing if we will wake up in the morning,” she told the AFP news agency.

“The sound of the bombardment is very frightening, everyone’s afraid. The children are afraid, and the grown-ups are afraid too.”




Israeli forces have struck multiple targets across Lebanon, leading to the death of almost 600 people, many of them civilians. (Reuters)

As civilians tried to escape the conflict zones this week, they found highways from the south clogged with traffic. Roads to safety were so busy that many spent 12 hours or more on a journey that previously took just one or two.

While some have found refuge with friends or relatives, the sheer volume of displaced people is overwhelming Lebanon’s capacity to provide accommodation, with schools, community centers and unfinished buildings quickly being converted into temporary shelters.

Lebanon’s government is in no position to mount a significant relief effort. In recent years, it has been paralyzed by political deadlock and financial collapse, with its currency losing more than 90 percent of its value.

“Lebanon has been dealing with multiple crises and has still not recovered from the devastating of the Aug. 4, 2020, Beirut port explosion, as well as the economic crisis that engulfed the country starting in late 2019,” Hovig Atamian, director of programs at CARE International in Lebanon, told Arab News.




About 500,000 Lebanese have been displaced since Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah ramped up, with more than 110,000 fleeing prior to the recent escalation. (Reuters)

“Humanitarian organizations have been preparing for the worst case scenario of a very significant escalation for months now, but the reality on the ground, including access constraints due to the security risks will always remain a challenge.

“We call on the parties to the conflict to uphold the provisions of international humanitarian law, including taking measures to avoid and minimize loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects as well as protecting all humanitarian personnel and operations.”

With international funding already stretched due to crises in Gaza, Ukraine and other conflict zones, there is a fear that Lebanon could be overlooked in terms of humanitarian assistance.

Imran Riza, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon, has allocated a $24 million emergency aid package from the Lebanon Humanitarian Fund to address the urgent needs of those impacted by the hostilities. Those needs are now likely to grow rapidly, however.

Lebanon is “grappling with multiple crises, which have overwhelmed the country’s capacity to cope,” Riza said in a statement.

“As the escalation of hostilities in south Lebanon drags on longer than we had hoped, it has led to further displacement and deepened the already critical needs.”




The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday that it had hit 1,500 “terrorist infrastructure targets in southern Lebanon and deep inside Lebanese territory.” (AFP)

Charities such as MedGlobal are now mobilizing to deliver essential items to the temporary shelters.

“We are going to distribute food that is pre-prepared, because they don’t have cooking supplies, but also mattresses, winterization kits, blankets — because winter is on the doorstep, so they need to be prepared,” Baban said.

“The people who are coming into the shelters, a lot of them are elderly people who left their medications, who left their money, who need to get their medicine for their chronic illnesses as well.

“We’re talking about diabetes, heart problems, hypertension, and some patients are on dialysis. Some patients are maybe on chemotherapy, and we haven’t even begun to speak about the risk of communicable diseases.

“These are going to be overcrowded school turned shelters and winters coming, and we haven’t even discussed flu, COVID-19 and all of that. So it’s a very grim situation.”




Synchronized Israeli attacks last week on Hezbollah’s communication devices, which killed 39 people and injured more than 3,000. (AP)

Israeli forces have struck multiple targets across Lebanon, leading to the death of almost 600 people, many of them civilians. The strikes followed a synchronized attack last week on Hezbollah’s communication devices, which killed 39 people and injured more than 3,000.

The Israel Defense Forces said on Tuesday that it had hit 1,500 “terrorist infrastructure targets in southern Lebanon and deep inside Lebanese territory.”

“Hezbollah today is not the same Hezbollah we knew a week ago,” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said, claiming that the group “has suffered a sequence of blows to its command and control, its fighters, and the means to fight.”

INNUMBERS

• 500,000 People displaced across Lebanon. • 600 Fatalities, including 50 children and 94 women.

• 1,700 People injured by strikes across Lebanon.

• 60,000 Israelis evacuated from border areas since October.

The violence escalated on Wednesday when Hezbollah said it had launched a ballistic missile at Tel Aviv. Although Israel intercepted the missile, it represents an unprecedented move and a dangerous new phase in the conflict.

Early on Wednesday, Hezbollah confirmed that the commander of its missile unit, Ibrahim Muhammad Qubaisi, had been killed, hours after the Israeli military said that he had been “eliminated” in an airstrike on Ghobeiri in Beirut’s southern suburbs.




An estimated 60,000 or so Israelis are internally displaced from the other side. (AFP)

The escalation comes nearly a year after Hezbollah began launching attacks shortly after the Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 240 taken hostage.

Israel responded by invading the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, leading to a conflict that has claimed more than 41,000 lives, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict have so far failed. US President Joe Biden, addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, warned of the dangers of full-scale war in Lebanon, urging for restraint from all sides.




Since Hezbollah began rocketing northern Israel in solidarity with its Hamas allies following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, southern Lebanon has been transformed into a battleground, with Israel mounting retaliatory strikes. (Reuters)

“Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest,” Biden said. “Even though the situation has escalated, a diplomatic solution is still possible.”

For Baban of MedGlobal, the unfolding humanitarian emergency could have serious implications for the wider region.

“Something needs to be done to stop this, to prevent this catastrophe from not only hitting Lebanon but becoming a regional catastrophe.”

 


Yemen’s Houthis claim they shot down another American drone as US strikes pound country

Yemen’s Houthis claim they shot down another American drone as US strikes pound country
Updated 9 sec ago
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Yemen’s Houthis claim they shot down another American drone as US strikes pound country

Yemen’s Houthis claim they shot down another American drone as US strikes pound country
  • The reported shootdown over Yemen’s contested Marib governorate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa and Saada
  • The US military acknowledged to The Associated Press being aware of reports of the downing of a Reaper
DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthi militia claimed Tuesday that they shot down another American MQ-9 Reaper drone, even as the US kept up its campaign of intense airstrikes targeting the group.
The reported shootdown over Yemen’s contested Marib governorate came as airstrikes hit around Sanaa, the country’s militia-held capital, and Saada, a stronghold for the Houthis.
US President Donald Trump issued a new warning to both the Houthis and their main benefactor, Iran, describing the group as having “been decimated” by the campaign of strikes that began March 15.
“Many of their Fighters and Leaders are no longer with us,” Trump wrote on his social media website Truth Social. “We hit them every day and night — Harder and harder. Their capabilities that threaten Shipping and the Region are rapidly being destroyed. Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation.”
He added: “The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran.”
Houthis claim they downed another US drone
The militia claimed to have felled a drone in Marib governorate, home to oil and gas fields still under the control of allies to Yemen’s exiled central government. Footage released on social media showed flames in the night, with a Yemeni man claiming a drone had been shot down.
Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree, a Houthi military spokesman, separately claimed downing the MQ-9 drone in a prerecorded video message.
Saree described the militia targeting the drone with “a suitable locally manufactured missile.” The Houthis have surface-to-air missiles — such as the Iranian missile known as the 358 — capable of downing aircraft.
Iran denies arming the militia, though Tehran-manufactured weaponry has been found on the battlefield and in sea shipments heading to Yemen for the Shiite Houthi militia despite a United Nations arms embargo.
The US military acknowledged to The Associated Press being aware of reports of the downing of a Reaper, but declined to comment further.
General Atomics Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes over 40,000 feet (12,100 meters) and remain in the air for over 30 hours. The aircraft have been flown by both the US military and the CIA for years over Afghanistan, Iraq and now Yemen.
The Houthis claim they’ve shot down 20 MQ-9s over the country over the years, with 16 downed during the militia’ campaign over the Israel-Hamas war. The US military hasn’t acknowledged the total number of the drones it has lost there.
Intense US bombings began March 15
An Associated Press review has found the new American operation against the Houthis under Trump appears more extensive than those under former President Joe Biden, as the US moves from solely targeting launch sites to firing at ranking personnel as well as dropping bombs in cities.
The new campaign of airstrikes, which the Houthis now say have killed at least 61 people, started after the militia threatened to begin targeting “Israeli” ships again over Israel blocking aid entering the Gaza Strip. The militia have loosely defined what constitutes an Israeli ship, meaning many vessels could be targeted.
The Houthis targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors from November 2023 until January of this year. They also launched attacks targeting American warships, though none has been hit so far.
The attacks greatly raised the Houthis’ profile as they faced economic problems and launched a crackdown targeting dissent and aid workers at home amid Yemen’s decade-long stalemated war, which has torn apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.

Egyptian inmates’ ordeal in Sudan prisons

Egyptian inmates’ ordeal in Sudan prisons
Updated 01 April 2025
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Egyptian inmates’ ordeal in Sudan prisons

Egyptian inmates’ ordeal in Sudan prisons

CAIRO: Prisoners held by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan spoke on Monday of their ordeal in paramilitary detention centers.

Arrested two months after the country’s civil war began in April 2023, Egyptian traders suspected of spying for the regular army were stripped, tortured and starved, and watched as other inmates died from cholera and malaria.

“You couldn’t go two weeks without falling sick,” said Emad Mouawad, 44, who was held at the notorious Soba prison in southern Khartoum after paramilitary forces raided his home in the city.

At night, swarms of insects crawled over the prisoners. “There was nothing that made you feel human,” he said.

Ahmed Aziz, who was detained with Mouawad, said: “They would bring us hot water mixed with wheat flour. Just sticky, tasteless paste.” Water was either polluted from a well or muddy from the Nile. “If you were sick, you just waited for death,” Aziz said.

Another trader, Mohamed Shaaban, 43, said: “They stripped us naked as the day we were born.  Then they beat us, insulted and degraded us.”
Back home in Egypt, the former prisoners are struggling to recover physically and mentally. “We have to try to turn the page and move on,” Shaaban said. “We have to try and forget.”


New Syrian Cabinet ‘won’t be able to satisfy everyone’

New Syrian Cabinet ‘won’t be able to satisfy everyone’
Updated 01 April 2025
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New Syrian Cabinet ‘won’t be able to satisfy everyone’

New Syrian Cabinet ‘won’t be able to satisfy everyone’
  • Interim president says 23 ministers chosen for competence and expertise, not ideology

DAMASCUS: The new transitional government in the Syrian Arab Republic would aim for consensus in rebuilding the war-torn country but would “not be able to satisfy everyone,” interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa said on Monday
The transitional 23-member Cabinet was named at the weekend, more than three months after Sharaa’s forces led an offensive that toppled dictator Bashar Assad. The new authorities were seeking to reunite and rebuild the country and its institutions after nearly 14 years of civil war, Sharaa told a gathering at the presidential palace broadcast on Syrian television after Eid Al-Fitr prayers.

“A new history is being written for Syria ... we are all writing it,” he said.
Sharaa said ministers had been chosen for competence and expertise, “without ideological or political orientations.” The government’s composition took into consideration “the diversity of Syrian society” while rejecting a quota system for religious or ethnic minorities, instead opting for “participation,” he said.


Three killed in Israeli strike targeting Hezbollah militant in Beirut

Three killed in Israeli strike targeting Hezbollah militant in Beirut
Updated 01 April 2025
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Three killed in Israeli strike targeting Hezbollah militant in Beirut

Three killed in Israeli strike targeting Hezbollah militant in Beirut
  • Under the terms of the ceasefire, Israel was due to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops in five places it deems “strategic”

BEIRUT: At least three people were killed and seven wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs early on Tuesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, further testing a shaky four-month ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-aligned group.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it attacked a Hezbollah militant “who had recently directed Hamas operatives and assisted them.”
There was no immediate statement from Hezbollah on the identity of the target.
Israel resumed a ground and air campaign in the Gaza enclave last month, demanding that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, lay down its arms.
The strike in Beirut appeared to have damaged the upper three floors of a building in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, a Hezbollah stronghold known as the Dahiyeh, a Reuters reporter at the scene said, with the balconies of those floors blown out. The glass on the floors below was intact, indicating a target strike. Ambulances were at the scene to recover casualties.
There was no evacuation warning issued for the area ahead of the strike, and families fled in the aftermath to other parts of Beirut, according to witnesses.
The November truce halted the year-long conflict and mandated that southern Lebanon be free of Hezbollah fighters and weapons, that Lebanese troops deploy to the area and that Israeli ground troops withdraw from the zone. But each side accuses the other of not entirely living up to those terms.
The US-brokered ceasefire has looked increasingly flimsy lately. Israel delayed a promised troop withdrawal in January and said in March that it had intercepted rockets fired from Lebanon, which led it to bombard targets in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah has denied any involvement in the rocket firings.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest attack.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities. The campaign began on Oct. 7, 2023 when Hamas militants stormed across the border, and Israel said the militants killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people into captivity in Gaza. 


Trump says ‘real pain is yet to come’ for Houthis, Iran

Trump says ‘real pain is yet to come’ for Houthis, Iran
Updated 01 April 2025
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Trump says ‘real pain is yet to come’ for Houthis, Iran

Trump says ‘real pain is yet to come’ for Houthis, Iran
  • The Houthis began targeting shipping after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians
  • Trump’s threat comes as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leaking of a secret text chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump vowed Monday that strikes on Yemen’s Houthis will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping, warning the rebels and their Iranian backers of “real pain” to come.
“The choice for the Houthis is clear: Stop shooting at US ships, and we will stop shooting at you. Otherwise, we have only just begun, and the real pain is yet to come, for both the Houthis and their sponsors in Iran,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform.
Shortly after Trump’s threat, Yemeni rebel media said two US strikes Monday hit the island of Kamaran, off the Hodeida coast.
Houthi-held parts of Yemen have faced near daily attacks since the US launched a military offensive on March 15 to stop them threatening vessels in key maritime routes. The first day alone, US officials said they killed senior Houthi leaders, while the rebels’ health ministry said 53 people were killed.
Since then, rebels have announced the continued targeting of US military ships and Israel.
In his post Monday, Trump added that the Houthis had been “decimated” by “relentless” strikes since March 15, saying that US forces “hit them every day and night — Harder and harder.”
Trump’s threat comes as his administration battles a scandal over the accidental leaking of a secret text chat by senior security officials on the Yemen strikes.
It also comes amid a sharpening of Trump’s rhetoric toward Tehran, with the president threatening that “there will be bombing” if Iran does not reach a deal on its nuclear program.
The Houthis began targeting shipping after the start of the Gaza war, claiming solidarity with Palestinians.
Houthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 percent of world shipping traffic. Ongoing attacks are forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.
“Our attacks will continue until they are no longer a threat to Freedom of Navigation,” Trump said.
The rising rhetoric from the Trump administration comes as it copes with the phone text scandal.
The Atlantic magazine revealed last week that its editor — a well-known US journalist — was accidentally included in a chat on the commercially available Signal app where top officials were discussing the Yemen air strikes.
The officials, including Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, discussed details of air strike timings and intelligence — unaware that the highly sensitive information was being simultaneously read by a member of the media.
Trump has rejected calls to sack Waltz or Hegseth and branded the scandal a “witch hunt.”
“This case has been closed here at the White House as far as we are concerned,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday.