War and The Displaced in Lebanon’s South

Five months of armed conflict along Lebanon’s southern border have resulted in hundreds of deaths and caused huge disruption to people’s lives, forcing more than 91,000 people from their homes and exacting a significant toll on their financial stability and psychological wellbeing.

Exchanges of fire across the border between Israeli forces and Hezbollah and other groups began on 8 October 2023 and show no signs of abating, while the conflict has recently spread to northeastern Lebanon with Israeli forces bombing the Baalbek-Hermel governorate.

Many of the displaced people left their homes with no possessions and struggle to get hold of basic necessities such as food and blankets. More than 60 families are living in an abandoned hotel repurposed into a shelter in Al-Merouaniye, some 60 kilometres from the border. One of its residents is Ali Hammoud, a barber and a father of three from Rab Al-Thalathine, who fights back tears as he recounts his family’s ordeal.

“My older son has had three mental crises,” he says. “We go to sleep, wake up, and repeat this every day. We are worried that our kids will develop mental problems from this situation. The same routine, day in and day out, is more burdensome to a child than an adult.”

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are providing displaced people who fled the border region with psychological first aid. “We’re seeing an increase in depression and anxiety disorders,” says Felicitas Steinhoff, MSF mental health activity manager, who warns of the psychological toll of prolonged displacement.

“In terms of mental health, I think people are really good at coping with short-term stress, but what we see here is families who have been displaced from their homes for over five months now and who are living with a lot of uncertainty around when and even if they might be able to go back,” she says.

Our mobile medical team also provides people with care for chronic diseases and makes regular visits to a clinic in Nabatiyeh governorate, alongside the border.

The team provided 373 consultations since the start of 2024 in both locations. Manahel Rammel, who fled her home in the border town of Oudaisseh on 8 October, says that children and young people are suffering the most. “Young people aged between 18 and 20 sit around without any idea of what they want to do,” she says. “Their future is gone. The future of youth is gone.”

Manahel’s own daughter is fortunate to be studying in Beirut, but Manahel is unable to visit her there due to the high cost of transport. Like many people across Lebanon, Manahel already struggled to make ends meet before the current crisis, but being displaced has exacerbated her financial difficulties.

Lebanon is grappling with its fourth year of severe economic turmoil, which has seen two-thirds of its population pushed into poverty. The current violence has halted or severely impacted many people’s livelihoods, leaving them unable to meet even basic needs.

Ali initially sought refuge in Beirut, but after his savings were exhausted, he moved to the shelter in Al-Merouaniye. “We left our homes with nothing but the shirts on our backs,” says Ali.

“During the truce [a four-day truce in November 2023], we went back to pack some essentials and clothes just to warm ourselves… I had some savings, but they all ran out. I stayed in Beirut for two months and I spent all my money before eventually moving to this shelter,” he says.

While the walls of the abandoned hotel offer some safety and warmth to the families sheltering there, they – like thousands of other displaced people across Lebanon – are clearly in need of comprehensive and sustained assistance as they face an uncertain future.

“If I could rub a magic lantern right at this moment, I would wish to be back home in my village,” says Ali. “We have no solution, only God knows where we’re headed.”

Reliefweb

CrossFireArabia

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.

Related Posts

Israel Kills Journalist and His Family in Gaza

Journalist Mohammad Saleh Al Baradawil, his wife and children, were killed in the early morning hours of   Tuesday morning as Israeli occupation planes targeted his flat in Khan Younis, south of the Gaza Strip.

Sources point out that Israeli planes targeted the apartment of the journalist and his family in the Emirates neighborhood in West Khan Younis where additional martyrs and injured were reported.

Baradawil is the third journalist to have been assassinated after Israel resumed its genocidal war on Gaza on 18 March, 2025 after the end of the first stage of the ceasefire agreement reached with the Israeli government.

The latest killing brings the number of Palestinian journalists targeted by Israel at 209.

With American support Israel is carrying out a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip it started soon after 7 October, 2023 with the number of those killed standing at 164,000, mostly women and children while 14,000 still buried under the rubble in the Gaza Strip.

Continue reading
‘Its as Bad as Ever in Gaza’ – UN Workers

Lifesaving supplies in Gaza continue to run dangerously low, nearly four weeks into the total aid blockade and deadly bombardment of the enclave by Israel, UN humanitarians said on Friday.

According to local health authorities in Gaza, 830 people were killed between 18-23 March, including 174 women and 322 children. A further 1,787 were injured.

“The acts of war that we see bear the hallmarks of atrocity crimes,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA. “Hundreds of children and other civilians have been killed in health and Israeli airstrikes. Intensely populated areas hospitals are once again battlegrounds; patients killed in their beds, ambulances shot at, and first responders killed.”

It has been 10 days since Gazans woke up to renewed Israel bombing, abruptly ending the two-month ceasefire.

“It has been 10 days of witnessing – because the UN remains on the ground in Gaza – a callous disregard for human life and dignity,” Mr. Laerke maintained.

No to evacuations

Maryse Guimond, UN Women Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, relayed testimonies of Palestinians in Gaza who say they will not heed new evacuation orders issued by the Israeli military, on the grounds that “there are no safe places anyway”.

Speaking from Amman, she added: “It is a situation of pure survival and survival of their families because, as they say, there is simply nowhere to go…”

“As a woman recently said to us from Deir al Balah, ‘My mother says death is the same whether in Gaza City, or in Deir al Balah; we just want to return to Gaza.’”

Echoing those concerns, Dr. Margaret Harris, spokesperson for the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that the situation “is as bad as it ever was”. A new ceasefire is needed immediately for the sake of all Gazans, she insisted.

“We knew it was bad before the ceasefire, when we were constantly begging to be allowed to do our job just to help the ordinary people. No, they can’t keep going.”

Healthcare in the enclave is also suffering from the aid blockade, with supplies dwindling dangerously low since the cut-off began on 2 March.

“The key supplies now for safe labour and delivery…will be running out soon,” said Dr Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the OPT.

A dozen ambulances have also been put out of action through lack of fuel, the veteran humanitarian medic said, speaking from Jerusalem.

Collective punishment warning

Sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel, the war in Gaza has devastated the enclave and prompted widespread international condemnation over its impact on civilians, who should be spared from violence in times of war.

Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” OCHA’s Mr. Laerke insisted.

“International law is clear, it prohibits indiscriminate attacks, obstruction of life saving aid, destruction of infrastructure indispensable for civilian survival and hostage-taking.

“The International Court of Justice’s provisional measures on the application of the Genocide Convention remain in place; yet the alerts that we issue in report after report reveal an utter lack of respect for the most basic principles of humanity.”

UN News

Continue reading

You Missed

Burning Muslim Civilization

Burning Muslim Civilization

Israel Kills Journalist and His Family in Gaza

Israel Kills Journalist and His Family in Gaza

‘Its as Bad as Ever in Gaza’ – UN Workers

‘Its as Bad as Ever in Gaza’ – UN Workers

Thank You Annie

Thank You Annie

Gaza Cracks Trump’s Image as ‘Peacemaker’

Gaza Cracks Trump’s Image as ‘Peacemaker’

How Israel Uses Its Legal System For Genocide

How Israel Uses Its Legal System For Genocide