Hezbollah – a completely independent militia – began firing rockets into northern Israel after US and Israeli bombing raids on Iran began on February 28.
Women make up 25 of the more than 380 people killed in Lebanon since the ceasefire came into effect on April 17, highlighting the dangers they face “as they try to return to their homes under the perceived safety of the ceasefire,” said Moez Doraid, UN Women’s regional director for Arab States.
“Continued Israeli airstrikes, evacuation orders, bans on returning to certain areas and movement restrictions mean that most people are still unable to return to their homes.and it is estimated that more than half a million women and girls remain displaced,” she told reporters.
‘Return hope’
Speaking from Beirut via video link, Doraid urged the international community to “support these women, girls, men and boys to give them hope.”
Unlike past wars and conflicts that the people of Lebanon have suffered in recent decades, “this current conflict has eroded hope among many, as homes and lands in southern Lebanon have been destroyed,” the UN official insisted.
He described how one woman had been forced to “forage for wild herbs to feed her family” amid increasing food insecurity.
This troubling testimony is in line with respected assessments from food insecurity experts that support estimates that an additional 144,000 women and girls are expected to face hunger at crisis level or worse in the coming months, bringing the total to approximately 639,000.
Basic services eroded
Today in Lebanon, access to food, water, healthcare, education and basic services has been dangerously disrupted. Around 1.2 million people have been displaced and entire communities uprooted by Israeli evacuation orders that cover more of the country than ever before.
With the ceasefire in place but no peace established, thousands of people are returning in difficult conditions, with extensive damage to their homes and the risk of unexploded ordnance.
So far during this conflict, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) has negotiated the movement of 19 convoys to southern Lebanon with support for 84,500 people. “But they are a fraction of those that are approved,” said Matthew Hollingworth, WFP’s Deputy Executive Director of Program Operations.
“Normally, we’re just talking about less than 50 percent (of convoy requests to Israel) getting approved.. Therefore, we would like to do many more inter-agency, multi-agency and NGO convoys in hard-to-reach areas… We just need to do a lot more,” he said.
Since March 2, UN Women has directly supported more than 15,000 women and girls, with reach extending to more than 70,000 people in their communities.
“In such terrible conditions, I have also witnessed the incredible resilience in the response of women and women’s organizations who provide humanitarian assistance, support livelihoods and improve social cohesion across Lebanon,” said Doraid of UN Women.
The agency is supporting more than 500 women leaders “to help communities confront the crisis, connect people to assistance, identify urgent needs, reduce tensions and ensure women’s voices are heard in local response and recovery efforts,” she said.