What is happening in Lebanon?

Two hundred thousand people are in need of humanitarian aid. Without enough food, water, shelter, and medicine, conditions will become unlivable for people who have fled.

• On the 23rd and 24th of September, more than 250 Israeli warplanes dropped about 2,000 missiles on Lebanon.
  
  
• The Lebanese health ministry has identified more than 550 shelters to support more than 70,000 people who have fled their homes.
  
  
• Save the Children estimates that hundreds of thousands of children have likely fled their homes.
  

Lebanon has faced crisis after crisis in recent years, including a refugee crisis from the Syrian civil war, the Beirut port blast in 2020, a cholera outbreak, and an economic crisis that has resulted in skyrocketing poverty and the collapse of essential public services. It can’t afford to bear the weight of this added disaster on its own.

Here’s what’s happening, and what you can do to help.

What is the conflict in Lebanon about?

Since October 8th, 2023, Lebanese and Palestinian armed groups have exchanged cross-border fire with Israel, resulting in the displacement of people on both sides of the border.

These exchanges significantly escalated in recent days, with Israel conducting unprecedented attacks via pagers and walkie talkies before executing a series of aerial offensives that caused the deadliest day in Lebanon since the 1975-1990 civil war.

To date, over 1,565 individuals have been killed, including 73 children. Strikes have also targeted ambulances and healthcare workers. In addition to humanitarian groups suspending operations in areas close to the southern border, this has significantly hindered urgent humanitarian interventions to affected communities.

What is the humanitarian situation in Lebanon right now?

Oxfam teams visited 17 collective shelters in Beirut, North Lebanon, and Mount Lebanon, and conducted observations to identify immediate gaps in basic needs.

• Among the needs are mattresses and bedding kits, hygiene items, and medication, as well as drinking water.
  
  
• Other items, such as food and functioning toilets are so far provided on an ad-hoc, day-to-day basis, without long-term planning.

Too many households remain stranded without safe shelter and housing due to the steep rate of displacement. Access to food, water and sanitation support, and other services has considerably decreased for low-income displaced households who remain in urgent need of assistance.

Syrian refugees are being excluded from many shelters and emergency support. These refugees have already been facing the ramifications of Lebanon’s economic crisis and recurrent Israeli strikes, with limited access to basic needs.

What is Oxfam doing to help the people of Lebanon?

Together we’re supporting people with emergency cash, food, clean water, sanitation services, and hygiene and menstrual kits. With our local partners we have distributed water to families equivalent to almost 40,000 bottles of water and distributed 374 hygiene and menstrual kits to 400 people.

Oxfam has worked with partners and local organizations in Lebanon since 1993. Today we work with 30 partner organizations in North Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut. We work with Syrian and Palestinian refugees in Lebanon as well as Lebanese communities.

The partner organizations Oxfam works with in Lebanon, including the Utopia Organization featured below, deeply understand the needs of the communities they are part of. This includes work with people with disabilities and with people who are migrant workers.

What needs to happen now in Lebanon and the wider region?

• An immediate and permanent ceasefire
  
  
• The protection of all civilians
  
  
• The US must stop arming Israel immediately
  
  
• All breaches of international law, in all forms, must end
  
  
• Work towards de-escalation of hostilities and a lasting and just peace for all people in Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider region
  

The international community, including the U.S., must condemn this escalation and take bold action to help stop it now. They must use all means at their disposal to secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire, as this is the only way to stop the death and destruction in Lebanon, Gaza, Israel and across the wider region, and stop any further escalation of violence.

Israel continues to act with impunity. It must be held to account for its actions in both Lebanon and Gaza. All parties must abide by international humanitarian law and be held to account where potential violations have occurred.

Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to fuel the crisis by allowing the sale of arms to Israel. If the U.S. is serious about wanting to stop the crisis in Lebanon and Gaza, it must do more and stop arming Israel immediately.

This further escalation in violence in Lebanon underscores the urgent need for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

What you can do to help Lebanon

• Donate to our Lebanon Appeal.
• Join our call for a ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon, and the wider region.