International Organization for Migration chief Amy Pope told AFP on Thursday in Beirut that the prospects for prolonged mass displacement in Lebanon, where Israel and Hezbollah are at war, were “very alarming.”
“I think those prospects are very alarming because you look right now at the level of destruction that’s happening and… the further destruction that has been threatened,” she said when asked about the possibility of prolonged mass displacement.
“There are parts of the south that are being completely flattened… even if the war ends tomorrow, that destruction remains and there needs to be a rebuilding,” she said, noting that reconstruction would require funding, resources and peace.
“Unless we start to see those things come into place, that means that people will be displaced now for who knows how long,” she added.
Lebanon says more than one million people have been displaced since the country was drawn into the Middle East war last month when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon and a ground invasion, and has issued sweeping evacuation warnings for swathes of south Lebanon and Beirut’s densely populated southern suburbs.
Authorities say more than 136,000 people are staying in collective shelters including schools and stadiums, while some people are sleeping on the streets.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said his country’s military would occupy a swathe of southern Lebanon even after the war ends, and that the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese would be “completely prevented” until northern Israel’s security was ensured.
‘Shocking’
Pope said the current displacement crisis was “far more severe” than during the previous hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel which a 2024 ceasefire sought to end.
She noted the high number of displaced people, shelters struggling to cope and the fact that some people had been unable to return home after being displaced during the previous round of fighting.
People outside Lebanon “absolutely do not understand the scale” of the displacement crisis, which is “coming at a time where resources for humanitarian response are more limited than ever,” she said.
The UN has launched a flash humanitarian appeal for more than $300 million for Lebanon, including an IOM appeal for around $19 million, Pope said, “but very, very little of that has now come in.”
“We’re seeing some of the most basic life-saving support really be needed,” she said, including shelter and blankets.
Pope also said a strike this week on Beirut’s Jnah district damaged the IOM premises nearby, shattering windows and rendering the agency’s health clinic for migrants “basically unusable.”
Authorities said the strike killed seven people, while Israel said it killed a senior Hezbollah commander.
Israel has also carried out several strikes on locations near where displaced people have been sheltering or on hotels or apartments reportedly rented by displaced people.
Pope said such strikes were “shocking.”
“If people can’t find safety, they move. And if they can’t find safety at home, they move across borders,” she warned.
