Lebanon refugee crisis worsens

Israeli strikes and mass evacuation orders have seen nearly 700,000 people flee their homes in Lebanon in just over a week, with more than 100,000 leaving in 24 hours, the UN said Tuesday.

"Lives have been upended on a massive scale," said Karolina Lindholm Billing, the representative in Lebanon of UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency.

In just over a week since the new escalation in Lebanon, Israeli air strikes and evacuation warnings to residents of dozens of villages "forced families across Lebanon to flee within minutes", she told reporters in Geneva, speaking from Beirut.

She said "more than 667,000 people in Lebanon have now registered on the (Lebanese) government's online platform as displaced".

"This is an increase of 100,000 in just one day," Lindholm Billing said, stressing that this is "a faster pace of displacement compared to 2024", during Israel's last war against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war last week when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun on Monday accused Hezbollah of working to "collapse" the state and expressed Beirut's readiness for "direct negotiations" with Israel.

Lebanese authorities said on Monday that Israel's attacks since March 2 have killed at least 486 people, including 84 children.

AFP has not been able to carry out a detailed breakdown of the figures.

Lindholm Billing said that around 120,000 of those displaced in Lebanon were sheltering in government-designated collective sites, while many others were staying with relatives or friends or searching for accommodation.

"Many — often displaced for the second time since the hostilities in 2024 — fled in a rush with almost nothing, seeking safety in Beirut, Mount Lebanon, northern districts and parts of the Beqaa" in the east, she said.

The World Health Organization meanwhile warned that "overcrowding in shelters and host homes is heightening public health risks, including disease outbreaks, interruptions to routine health services, and disruption of care for chronic diseases, maternal health conditions and mental health disorders".

Many people were also making their way to neighbouring Syria.