Lebanon emergency
Israeli airstrikes have targeted multiple regions across Lebanon, resulting in more than 2,300 deaths and over 10,500 wounded since October 2023.
The Government of Lebanon estimates that 1.2 million people are now displaced, and around 276,000 people – both Lebanese and Syrians – have fled into Syria
Protection
including legal aid, psychosocial support and child protection.
Cash assistance
so people can buy food, warm blankets and medicines.
Shelter
to protect families in makeshift informal settlements.
What is the situation in Lebanon?
Lebanon hosts more refugees per capita than any other country in the world. The majority have fled from Syria, but since the beginning of the war in Gaza, ongoing clashes across Lebanon’s southern border have displaced thousands of people.
The country still hasn’t fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic or the Beirut bomb blasts of 2020. It’s now in the midst of a severe socio-economic crisis, with prices spiralling and many people unable to afford food, electricity or vital medicines.
As a result, nine out of ten refugees in Lebanon are living in extreme poverty – going hungry, sleeping in tents or under flimsy tarpaulins, and ill-equipped to protect themselves from the biting cold and rainstorms of winter. They urgently need help to survive.
What's happening in Lebanon now?
As of September 2024, Israel has dramatically intensified its airstrikes on Lebanon, a country that has already been through too much loss and destruction. These past weeks have been the deadliest – and the most devastating – for Lebanon in decades.
The sheer human toll is staggering, with at least 2,300 killed since the start of the hostilities in October 2023, and 10,700 wounded. The Government of Lebanon estimates that 1.2 million people are now displaced – of whom 1 million were displaced in just one week (starting the 23rd of September). These are staggering numbers for a country as small as Lebanon.
What is Lebanon’s role as a refugee hosting country?
Lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees per capita in the world, with an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees and over 11,000 refugees of other nationalities. Of these, 55% are Iraqi, 19% are Sudanese and 13% are Ethiopian.
What support does UNHCR deliver?
UNHCR teams are hard at work across Lebanon in the following ways:
- Supporting community groups and outreach volunteers, who shape programmes at a grassroots level.
- Delivering cash and in-kind assistance, so that families have enough to eat and the essentials they need to survive.
- Providing emergency shelter kits, repairing damaged buildings and improving living conditions in informal settlements.
- Subsidising hospital care and providing better access to vital medicines.
- Teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills to refugee children and helping older students to access higher education opportunities.
- Protecting and providing legal aid to the most vulnerable refugees, including women, children and survivors of gender-based violence.
- Facilitating activities that promote peacebuilding and social stability.
How is UNHCR responding to the latest crises?
UNHCR has operated in Lebanon for many years and is committed to staying and delivering for as long as needed. Its teams continue to work with partner organisations across Lebanon to coordinate the humanitarian response and meet the needs of refugees and conflict-affected people across the country.
UNHCR teams are working relentlessly with humanitarian partners and Lebanese authorities to urgently find safe shelter for those without any.
Since 23 September, 2024, UNHCR and partners have distributed more than 132,00 core relief items including mattresses, blankets, kitchen sets and solar lamps to approximately 73,000 people. Over 263,000 Lebanese and refugees have received cash assistance from UNHCR. UNHCR’s response continues to focus on all affected communities, including Lebanese families and refugees.
Where can I find out more about UNHCR’s work in Lebanon?
For the latest updates on this and other crises that UK for UNHCR supports, follow our social media channels and sign up to our email updates.
For the latest UNHCR data relating to Syrian refugees and Lebanon, please visit the UNHCR Operational Data site here.