Lebanon’s prime minister warned on Sunday that up to a million people in the country may currently be displaced by Israel’s deadly attacks, which has no end in sight despite world leaders cautioning against the escalation out of fear it could turn into an all-out regional war.
After convening an emergency government meeting , Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that while he still wants to pursue a diplomatic solution to the fighting between Israel and militant group Hezbollah, the government must immediately address the mass killing and displacement in Lebanon by the Israeli military.
The prime minister’s video statement said that officially there are more than 118,000 displaced people staying in at least 778 shelters in Lebanon as of Friday, when Israeli forces rapidly escalated their massive assault in Beirut and its residential surroundings. Israel said the blasts killed more than 20 Hezbollah members on Friday, among them the group’s veteran leader Hassan Nasrallah .
“These people are being provided with basic needs like shelter and food, but estimates that the number of displaced people is much higher than this,” Mikati said. “It could reach up to one million people.”
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Azmi Mikati speaks during a United Nations Security Council meeting on the Middle East regarding Israeli attacks into the country.
The current forced displacement ― particularly from Beirut’s suburbs in the south and from the Bekaa Valley in the east ― is the largest in Lebanese history, he said. The displacement numbers don’t include the more than a thousand people killed in the last two weeks by Israeli forces, over a 100 of which were just from Sunday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The estimate of one million forcibly displaced people would make up a fifth of Lebanon’s entire population. More than 70,000 people have outright fled Lebanon, mostly into Syria out of fear that the Israeli military will launch a potential ground invasion , according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), who said the situation for civilians impacted by the strikes is “dire” straits.
Mikati, who less than a week earlier pleaded with the U.N. to protect Lebanese sovereignty , said on Sunday that his government is trying to address the many humanitarian issues that come with the mass migration of forcibly displaced people, including food, water, medical assistance, sanitation and shelters ― problems that the country’s Palestinian neighbors have been dealing with for almost a year now.
“Lebanon is in a state of complete upheaval at the moment,” Cyril Bassil, a Lebanon-based member of aid group CARE International, said on Thursday. “Tens of thousands of displaced people are seeking shelter across different areas in Lebanon, mostly at schools-turned-collective shelters to accommodate the droves of people with nowhere else to go.”
“This massive and unprecedented displacement is putting immense pressure on an already debilitated water and electricity infrastructure in areas witnessing this influx and that were not necessarily equipped to receive large numbers of displaced people,” he continued.
A man and young boy shelter in Martyrs' Square after being displaced by Israeli airstrikes on Sunday in Beirut, Lebanon. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that an estimated one million people have been forcibly displaced in the country by Israel's attacks.
More than 1,400 Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian refugees are now sheltering in at least seven facilities belonging to UNRWA , the U.N. agency largely responsible for assisting Palestinian refugees. But most of the schools serving as shelters are already full, and hospitals are overwhelmed with casualties, leaving some families to sleep in their cars or on the streets, according to Doctors Without Borders .
“Everyone is scared and worried, and no one knows where to seek safety,” Maram Sukkariyeh, the group’s health promotion supervisor, said on Thursday. Teams of health care workers are delivering water, blankets, mattresses and hundreds of hygiene kits, while offering psychological first aid to address deteriorating mental health , she said.
France and the U.S. have been engaged in efforts to secure a 21-day temporary cease-fire to allow for negotiations with Israel ― a decision that aligns with Mikati’s stated position that Lebanon has no other choice but to pursue a diplomatic solution.
“It is certain that the Lebanese government wants a cease-fire, and everyone knows that Netanyahu went to New York based on the premise of a cease-fire, but the decision was made to assassinate Nasrallah,” Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary said on Sunday, according to Al Jazeera .
Netanyahu on Friday echoed the rhetoric he’s used in Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza, telling the U.N. that his military is “continuing to strike Hezbollah with all [their] strength, and we won’t stop until we achieve all our objectives.”
Speaking to reporters, President Joe Biden said on Sunday that he would talk to Netanyahu and that all-out war in the Middle East “has to be” avoided. But despite the U.S. publicly urging a diplomatic approach to Lebanon, the Biden administration is still boosting air support and troop readiness ― and more notably, is continuing to unconditionally send Israel billions of dollars in American weaponry.
“Every hour, I get messages from my family in Lebanon, asking when the American-funded bombs will stop,” Abbas Alawieh, a Lebanese American who co-founded the pro-Palestinian “Uncommitted” voter movement, said on Sunday. “Not only is this administration sending more bombs aimed at them and other civilians, they’re also helping Netanyahu cover up his crimes. It’s despicable.”
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