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Women and girls in Lebanon are paying an increasingly devastating price as violence and displacement continue despite a ceasefire, the UN reproductive health agency (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday.
Heightened tensions in Beirut and intensified attacks in southern Lebanon have pushed families into fear and uncertainty, forcing many to make impossible choices in search of safety.
Healthcare centres struck
Over the weekend, airstrikes damaged a UNFPA-supported primary healthcare centre and women and girls’ safe space in southern Lebanon, one of the few facilities still providing critical services in the area, the agency’s Representative in Lebanon Anandita Philipose told reporters in New York via video link from Beirut.
Another strike damaged a public hospital offering maternal healthcare. Among those displaced are an estimated 13,500 pregnant women, including 1,500 expected to give birth in the next 30 days.
UNFPA warned that around 1,500 women remain trapped in southern Lebanon without reliable access to skilled care or safe delivery spaces.
“When maternity wards and hospitals are damaged and destroyed, it is pregnant women who cannot get life-saving services,” Ms. Philipose said.
Unsafe shelters
She also raised alarm over deteriorating conditions in shelters.
Safety assessments found overcrowding, poor lighting, lack of privacy and unsafe sanitation facilities, conditions that increase risks of gender-based violence, particularly for adolescent girls, female-headed households, pregnant women and people with disabilities.
UNFPA continues to provide mobile maternal health services, psychosocial support and protection assistance alongside local partners and Lebanese authorities.
Call for funding
But without immediate and sustained funding, the humanitarian consequences could deepen rapidly, Ms. Philipose warned.
The agency’s initial emergency appeal is only 30 per cent funded, and it is now seeking $25 million to continue operations through August.
If funding continues to fall short, thousands of pregnant women could lose access to skilled birth attendance and emergency maternal healthcare, and mobile teams serving hard-to-reach communities may be forced to scale back or stop operations entirely, Ms. Philopose said.
“Scaling down our operations means cutting off more than 75,000 women from critical gender-based violence protection, case management, and safe spaces at the exact moment that they need it the most.” UN News
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