More than 76,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon almost three months after the start of violence on the border with Israel, according to new figures published by a specialized United Nations agency. Exchanges of fire continued on Friday between Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas, and the Israeli army in the border area, like every day since the outbreak of war on October 7 in Gaza.
In a report released Thursday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese border had displaced 76,018 people, mainly in Israel’s border areas in southern Lebanon. The IOM indicates that nearly 81% of the displaced are currently housed with relatives. Only 2% are housed in 14 collective shelters spread across the south of the country, mainly in the coastal city of Tire (south) and in the Hasbaya region (southeast), adds the agency. The rest of the displaced have rented apartments or settled in their second homes, in regions further from the border.
175 dead in Lebanon
Cross-border violence has left 175 dead in Lebanon, including 129 Hezbollah fighters but also more than 20 civilians including three journalists, according to an AFP count. In northern Israel, nine soldiers and five civilians were killed, according to authorities. Hezbollah, which claims daily operations against Israeli soldiers along the border, says it intervenes in support of Hamas in Gaza.
The Shiite Islamist party warned that the assassination of Hamas number two, Saleh al-Arouri, killed Tuesday evening by a strike attributed to Israel in its stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut, “would not go unpunished”, raising fears the risk of a new escalation. Israel vowed to “destroy” Hamas after the Palestinian Islamist movement’s unprecedented attack on its soil on October 7, which left around 1,140 dead in Israel.
The war that has been going on in Gaza since this attack has cost the lives of 22,438 people, mostly women, adolescents and children, or now almost 1% of the territory’s population, according to the latest report from the Hamas Ministry of Health. THURSDAY.