Since April 17, at least 380 people have been killed despite the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, the agency said.
In addition, homes and public services have suffered “widespread destruction” in much of the country, affecting hundreds of thousands of people, the UNHCR official reported.
He described meeting families who had tried to return to their homes in Nabatieh and Tire after the US-brokered ceasefire went into effect, only to find chaos and twisted masonry.
“They were even more devastated than before after seeing his houses completely destroyed“Ms Lindholm Billing explained. “A man showed me a photo on his phone of his demolished house. And now he is back inside a sleeping bag on the floor of a classroom that serves as a collective shelter with nothing to return to and a very uncertain future.”
Paramedics are not a target.
Civilians and emergency workers are protected by international humanitarian law, but That has not stopped non-combatants from being attacked. who live in fear of being murdered every day.
“I want to share a clear message from the Lebanese Red Cross volunteers: they are asking for protection,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the UN partner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). While visiting volunteer paramedics in Lebanon last week, he said that “Every time they go on an ambulance mission, they hug and say goodbye, not sure if they will return safely..”
In the past two months, two IFRC paramedics in Lebanon were killed or died from injuries sustained while responding to calls in southern Lebanon: Youssef Assaf and Hassan Badawi.
“In a normal world, Red Cross volunteers would not need bulletproof vests or helmets in ambulances; the emblem should protect them,” Della Longa said. “But this is not a normal world. In Lebanon, Youssef and Hassan died while saving lives. The emblem did not protect them or their protective equipment..”
Mass unrest
Today across Lebanon, around 1.8 million people have been uprooted by the war between Hezbollah fighters and Israel, which erupted once again on March 2 when the Israeli military responded to Hezbollah rocket fire, three days after Israel and the United States began bombing Iran.
According to UNHCR, thousands of people have remained in areas under Israeli army control in southern Lebanon. UN humanitarian convoys continue to provide assistance to people in these hard-to-reach areas south of the Litani River. “But access is a challenge“It remains extremely difficult for relief teams to meet people’s basic needs,” explained Lindholm Billing.
“Families forced to leave their homes speak not only of loss but also of having their dignity taken away,” noted Della Longa of the International Federation. He explained that restoring people’s dignity “is fundamental to the response.”
Delivering aid is important, but so is “listening, engaging people and allowing them to support each other,” he said, adding that the ceasefire “has not reestablished standards or livelihoods, nor does it guarantee basic needs such as water, food or healthcare”.