Beirut, Lebanon. About 100,000 people have fled to shelters in Lebanon and the number of displaced is expected to rise rapidly following Israeli warnings ordering people out of large parts of the country, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.
Israeli evacuation orders and areas affected
With war raging between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Israeli military on Thursday ordered residents out of Beirut’s southern suburbs, including areas controlled by the Iran-backed group, as well as parts of the eastern Bekaa Valley, after ordering people out of a swathe of south Lebanon on Wednesday.
U.N. assessment of scale and public response
“What we saw in the last couple of days is, I would say … unprecedented in terms of the scale here in Lebanon of the warnings, the displacement orders, and the reaction, the panic also, that this has all created,” Imran Riza, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, told Reuters.
Shelter capacity and expected increase in displacement
“At the moment, there are about 100,000 people that are, as of this morning, in some 477 collective shelters. There are some 57 shelters that still have some space, but basically the capacity is being reached very, very quickly,” Riza said.
Noting the panic and gridlock caused by the displacement orders, Riza said people were moving without knowing where to go, adding that he expected the number of displaced to increase quickly.
Comparison with 2024 displacement
Riza said more than a million people were uprooted in Lebanon during a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2024, and that 75-80% of them were not in shelters. He said he expected that, again, the majority would probably not be in shelters.
How will the growing number of displaced people affect shelter capacity in your area?
