“Humanitarian needs are increasing every day of the conflict; unfortunately our work is far from over… we need the funding,” said Imran Riza, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon.
Speaking from Beirut, the veteran humanitarian expressed shock at the devastation caused by the hostilities, which included air and drone strikes and bombings.
It described “hospitals and clinics hit by airstrikes, government buildings destroyed, farmland burned, water stations demolished and schools turned into places of displacement.”
Since the last escalation of violence, more than 3,500 people have been killed and more than 10,000 injured. Nearly a million people remain displaced from their homes.
“Health care workers and first responders face deaths and injuries on a horrific scale” while entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, Riza said.
He also cited the deep and lasting trauma of the repeated displacements that families face, the lack of adequate accommodation and the uncertainty about being able to return home. Providing critical assistance in these conditions is extremely complicated and requires an urgent increase in support for the most vulnerable, he insisted.
“There are a lot of movement orders going on all the time. And in fact, several movement orders were issued this morning, so it’s very difficult to know where people are at certain times.”
“Affected people are rapidly exhausting their coping capacities and essential services are under increasing pressure,” the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said in an update accompanying the appeal.
Greater dangers for women and girls
As in conflicts around the world, mass displacement has increased risks for women and girls across Lebanon.
“Overcrowded shelters lack privacy, adequate sanitation and basic protection measures,” warned Andrew Saberton, deputy executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA.
It is estimated that more than 600,000 women and girls are at risk of gender violencehe noted, speaking from Cairo by video, to journalists in Geneva.
Additionally, approximately 1,800 women are expected to give birth each month across Lebanon. “And yet health facilities continue to come under attack, hospitals and primary health care centers have been forced to close and women are finding it increasingly difficult to access essential maternal health services,” Mr Saberton explained.
Air Raid Tragedy
She described how a UNFPA-supported primary health care center and safe space for women and girls in southern Lebanon that she visited “while being rebuilt in 2025, was once again severely damaged by airstrikes. These were among the few, very few facilities that continue to operate in the area.”
Warning of the protracted displacement crisis currently unfolding in southern Lebanon, Mr. Riza noted that beyond Israel’s self-proclaimed military line, It is estimated that 28,000 people remain.
He added that in 2024, after the conflict between Hezbollah fighters and Israel, some 68,000 people “were unable to return to their villages after the cessation of hostilities”either because it was unsafe or “mainly because their villages had been destroyed. I think our estimate now is that the number will be much, much higher, at a minimum probably around 200,000, but probably more than that.”
Friday’s emergency appeal brings the total request from the UN and its partners for Lebanon through August this year to $639.9 million.