Lebanon crisis: over one million people flee strikes amid invasion fears

Among the victims of the weekend bombardment was six-year-old Selena al Smarah, killed along with her parents at home in the southern city of Tyre on Saturday. Her sister Celine, 10, survived but sustained injuries in the attack.

The sisters were regulars at an arts workshop run by the NGO Tiro Association for Arts which has centres in Tyre and Tripoli in the north.

In photos shared with UN News, a smiling Selena holds up one of her drawings from a workshop a day before the attack, while in a short video her sister explains how the sessions cheer her up and let her get together with friends.

“We will continue our work for these children and youngsters in these time of war for as long as it takes,” said actor-director Kassem Istanbouli, who heads the volunteer group. Its aim is to foster art education in marginalized areas throughout Lebanon and forge bonds between divided communities.

Last year, Mr. Istanbouli was the joint recipient of the UNESCO Sharjah prize for Arab Culture. In 2021 UN Secretary-General António Guterres acknowledged Mr. Istanbouli’s efforts in engaging youth for positive change and in reopening theatres closed by the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Exodus to Syria

Meanwhile, some 100,000 of the displaced have reached neighbouring Syria, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.

“The outflow continues,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, in a tweet, accompanied by a picture of hundreds of people squeezed together at a Syrian-Lebanese border crossing.

Mr. Grandi noted that the agency’s teams were on hand at four crossing points inside Syria to support new arrivals.

The development follows a dramatic escalation of hostilities between the Israel military and the Hezbollah armed group based in Lebanon, whose longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was killed in a strike on Friday.

On Monday, Hamas announced that its leader in Lebanon, Fatah Sherif al-Amin, had been killed in an airstrike on a refugee camp for Palestinians, along with his family.

Humanitarian relief is being provided by the refugee agency, UNHCR and other UN agencies including UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, which has opened nine shelters accommodating 3,350 people.

“UNRWA provides in these shelters aid based on impartiality and non-discrimination, hosting Palestine refugees, Lebanese and Syrian refugees, supporting all in need,” said UNRWA Lebanon spokesperson Fadi El Tayyar.

The UN aid coordinating office, OCHA, said that 90 per cent of the one million people displaced fled their homes in just the last week.

“Displacement now surpasses the 2006 war, triggered by intense Israeli strikes and orders for civilian evacuations,” said OCHA in a tweet.

According to Lebanon’s health ministry, Israeli attacks have killed 105 people since Sunday across the country.