1 in 7 Displaced in Lebanon – NRC

CrossFireArabia
News
March 16, 2026

Lebanon is approaching a breaking point as displacement accelerates, with one in every seven people now displaced in the first ten days of the escalation, says the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

Lebanon Published 13. Mar 2026

At least 816,000, or 14 per cent of Lebanon’s population, have been displaced, according to official figures. The figures are set to rise further as Israel repeats evacuation warnings and bombards more villages and neighbourhoods across Lebanon.

“The scale of destruction and displacement is increasing with every passing hour,” says Maureen Philippon, NRC Country Director in Lebanon. “This indiscriminate bombing must stop. The situation in the collective shelters I have visited bears witness to repeated trauma among families and their children. People are going through the same cycle of bombing, loss, and displacement that they experienced almost two years ago, only with greater intensity and speed.”

Israel’s evacuation orders have now engulfed 1,470 square kilometres, or 14 per cent of Lebanon, including South Lebanon, Beirut’s Southern Suburb, and parts of Bekaa. Yesterday, Israel issued additional evacuation orders, further expanding the number of Lebanese villages under imminent threat.

In Tyr, South Lebanon, NRC’s office was badly damaged in an Israeli attack in the neighbourhood. We are lucky nobody was in the office as the extent of the damage means that colleagues would certainly have been injured. The organisation had notified Israel of its office location through the UN but received no warning from the Israeli military ahead of the strike.

“Israel’s mass evacuation orders have expanded to broad geographic directives, often demanding immediate movement, creating panic and fear across communities that strikes are imminent – even when they are not. These orders are likely to cause prolonged displacement with little prospect of return. All efforts must be made to end the use of such orders and ensure that whether they choose to leave an area or remain, that civilians are protected in line with International Humanitarian Law at all times by all parties to the conflict,” added Philippon.

Across collective shelter, where over 122,000 people have sought safety, conditions present immediate challenges for people. In one school sheltering 1,200 people, an average of 15 people are staying in each classroom, with every 23 people sharing a single toilet. There are no shower facilities or cooking gas and a limited supply of water.

NRC continues to support collective shelter with pillows, blankets, mattresses, cleaning items and other basics. NRC is also assessing additional support to improve conditions in shelters, including installing showers, adding latrines where needed, providing water, and setting up partitions to give families greater privacy. The scale of needs is already outgrowing support provided by the government and aid organisations.

NRC urges donors to commit flexible funding to enable humanitarian actors to respond to rapidly growing needs. This must take place while diplomatic efforts exhaust all means to bring an end to attacks on civilians and their infrastructure.

Notes to editors:

Since 2 March, 634 people have been killed and 1,586 injured in Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to official figures (Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit). No fatalities have been reported in Israel as a result of Hezbollah’s attacks (Reuters), but several people have been injured, according to news reports (Jerusalem Post, Time of Israel).
816,700 people are recorded as displaced in Lebanon as of 12th March. This includes 125,800 staying in collective shelters (Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit).
Lebanon has a population of around 5.8 million (World Bank). With 816,000 people forced from their homes, this makes up 14 per cent of the total population.
Israel has placed 1,470 square kilometers of Lebanese territory under evacuation orders, representing about 14 per cent of Lebanon’s total land area.

For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact:

NRC global media hotline: [email protected], +47 905 62 329

CrossFireArabia

Dr. Marwan Asmar holds a PhD from Leeds University and is a freelance writer specializing on the Middle East. He has worked as a journalist since the early 1990s in Jordan and the Gulf countries, and been widely published, including at Albawaba, Gulf News, Al Ghad, World Press Review and others.

Features News

Gaza, Srebrenica: Two Genocides Years Apart

CrossFireArabia
July 7, 2026

Israel Turns Gaza Into a Death ‘Srebrenica’ Camp

Israel is legitimising and enforcing a systematic pattern of geographic siege on Gaza, extending beyond a comprehensive blockade to include forcible internal confinement. This traps Palestinians within a small, devastated area under conditions more severe and crowded than those in the Srebrenica enclave before its fall in 1995, when genocide occurred according to the Euromedmonitor.

The Srebrenica genocide serves as a clear historical warning about the deadly impact of besieging civilians and depriving them of protection and essentials for life, particularly when these actions are part of systematic behaviour that is a core component of ongoing genocide, as seen in Gaza the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor added.

On the eve of Srebrenica’s fall in 1995, nearly 40,000 people were besieged within a roughly 150 km². Meanwhile, for most of Gaza’s approximately 2.1 million residents, the remaining habitable area has shrunk to just about 128 km².

Geographically and demographically, Gaza is now limited to an area about 15 per cent smaller than Srebrenica, but with a population over 50 times larger and a density roughly 60 times higher, all amidst rubble, waste, and a severe lack of basic living conditions.

Changing Gaza’s Landscape

Israel is changing the demographic and military landscape of the Gaza Strip by increasing its de facto control and imposing severe restrictions on roughly 65 per cent of the enclave. This action deprives over two million residents of essential resources, prevents their return to their lands and homes, and makes large parts of Gaza prohibited zones under Israeli military control. These measures effectively amount to an unlawful annexation and seizure of land the Geneva-based organization.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement to expand military control over 70 percent of Gaza highlights an aim to further settler colonialism and expel the area’s native Palestinians, as this plan would leave only about 109 km² for residents. If this occurs, the per capita share of the remaining space would decrease to approximately 52 m², and the population density would increase to about 19,300 people per km², which is roughly 72 times higher than the density in Srebrenica in 1995.

Although the numerical figures on population density are alarming, they do not fully reflect the harsh reality of the suffocating overcrowding residents face in the Gaza Strip. Much of the remaining land has been intentionally rendered uninhabitable through systematic destruction. This area is overwhelmed with large amounts of rubble from homes and civilian objects. It is filled with destroyed infrastructure and blocked roads, hindering movement, access, and humanitarian efforts. Additionally, waste, war remnants, water source contamination, sewage network collapses, and exposed land devoid of shelter or safe displacement sites further worsen the situation.

In addition to severe overcrowding, most residents live in either worn-out tents, which offer no shelter from summer heat, winter cold, or rain, or in heavily damaged houses that could collapse at any moment. These structures are at risk due to ongoing Israeli bombardments or natural elements like wind and rain the human rights organization goes on to say.

This situation poses numerous risks to hundreds of thousands of families, such as buildings collapsing on residents, fires erupting in overcrowded tent camps, and the spread of diseases due to poor sanitation, ventilation, and lack of clean water. It also deprives them of privacy and safety, particularly affecting women, children, and the elderly, as there are no safe housing options that could help residents escape this extreme overcrowding.

The residents of the Gaza Strip face a reality that deliberately subjects them to conditions intended to undermine the Palestinian population, either partially or entirely. This includes measures such as deportation or forced transfer, with efforts to legitimise and promote this displacement internationally under misleading terms like “freedom of movement” or “voluntary emigration.”

The ongoing killings, military operations, siege, and denial of sufficient food exemplify systematic actions that undermine civilian life. These include widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, effective denial of return, military seizure of large land areas, restrictions on access to medical, health, and educational services, obstruction of reconstruction, and forcing residents into areas lacking basic survival needs. Collectively, these practices convert any choice into a consequence of physical and psychological coercion by Israeli authorities. Any departure of residents from the Gaza Strip under these conditions therefore cannot be regarded as voluntary but falls under forced displacement, which is prohibited under international law.

The attempts to forcibly transfer the population are a direct continuation of Israel’s settler-colonial approach, which has persisted for decades and is based on policies aimed at erasing Palestinian history, space, and demographics, along with the systematic seizure of land. This phase is characterised by its rapid pace and broad scope, aiming to reach over two million people suffering from ongoing genocide. These individuals have been deprived of legal protection and basic survival means for nearly three years.

These systematic coercive measures, along with the dehumanisation they entail, are deliberately designed to force residents into a stark choice: either face physical extermination or be forced out of their homeland. This is not a voluntary decision, but a compulsory condition for survival, highlighting the Gaza Strip situation as a well-documented example of mass deportation and forcible transfer in modern legal history.

Fourth Geneva Convention

The international community and all states must unequivocally oppose any plans to depopulate Gaza or force residents to leave using misleading terms like “voluntary emigration” or “freedom of movement.” Such population movements, without safe options and under ongoing physical and psychological pressure, are not genuinely voluntary but are crimes of forced displacement. These are prohibited by the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. When this act occurs during an ongoing genocide, it triggers all states’ responsibilities to prevent and stop the crime, avoid recognising any illegal situation resulting from it, abstain from helping or supporting its continuation, and work together to end it and ensure those responsible are held accountable.

All states must implement prompt and effective punitive actions against Israel instead of merely issuing condemnation statements or broad calls. This includes applying diplomatic, economic, and military sanctions; suspending any agreements, privileges, or cooperation that enable ongoing crimes or provide political cover; enforcing a comprehensive embargo on the supply, transfer, purchase, or import of weapons, munitions, equipment, and military and security technology; freezing the assets of involved Israeli officials; and imposing travel bans on them. Maintaining normal relations with a state that commits genocide and forced displacement, or providing it with weapons, political, and economic support, can be seen as contributing to the ongoing unlawful situation. This may also violate states’ obligations to prevent and stop the crime and to avoid aiding or assisting in its commission.

The international community must act swiftly and decisively to dismantle Israel’s illegal system of control, detention, and apartheid over Palestinians, including those in the Gaza Strip. This involves forcing an immediate end to its military presence; removing barriers, buffer zones, and restricted areas that reduce the Strip’s land area and hinder residents’ access; and ensuring the prompt, unconditional return of displaced individuals to their original homes. These steps are essential to prevent de facto annexation, settler colonialism, and the forced displacement of Palestinians.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor urges immediate international action to lift the unlawful blockade on Gaza and establish safe, sustainable humanitarian access. This includes opening UN-supervised humanitarian corridors to allow the free flow of food, medicine, fuel, medical supplies, and shelter materials without arbitrary restrictions. The deployment of independent international monitors is crucial to verify compliance and ensure that aid and essential services are not used as tools of genocide.

Additionally, donors, states, and international organisations should move beyond merely managing the disaster through temporary relief. They need to act immediately to offer safe, dignified shelter solutions for residents, including permitting shelter materials and essential supplies to enter without restrictions, and urgently repairing health facilities, water and sewage networks, and critical infrastructure. A genuine path toward reconstruction cannot exist without lifting the blockade, ending Israeli restrictions on materials and equipment entry, ensuring residents can return to their areas, and stopping the ongoing destruction of civilian structures.

Reconstruction efforts should not replace accountability or serve to normalise the consequences of the Israeli crimes. Instead, it must compel Israel to take legal responsibility for the extensive destruction and ensure victims’ rights to reparation, compensation, and the restoration of safe living conditions on their land.

States with universal jurisdiction courts must issue arrest warrants for Israeli political and military leaders involved in the ongoing genocide and initiate legal proceedings to fulfil their international legal obligation to prosecute serious crimes and combat impunity. They must also hold accountable their citizens found to have committed violations against Palestinians, in line with their national and international legal obligations and within their territorial or personal jurisdiction.

Relevant UN agencies should urgently conduct an independent assessment of the Gaza Strip to identify the areas that are truly safe for habitation and human use. This will reveal the Israeli misrepresentation that considers nominal geographic zones as habitable. Euro-Med Monitor emphasises the importance of legally and practically distinguishing between the theoretical geographic regions still available to residents and the zones genuinely suitable for living or for safe displacement centres, which must be free of rubble, environmental and health risks, unexploded ordnance, and war remnants, EuroMed concluded.

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