He said these impacts raise “serious doubts about whether the obligations of proportionality and precaution under international humanitarian law were met” in the attacks, and emphasized that the sites attacked “do not appear to be for exclusive military use.”
World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Christian Lindmeier warned that the “black rain” and “acid rain” that has been falling in Tehran after the attacks “is indeed a danger” for Iranians.
“We are in contact with the hospitals and with the authorities, and the Iranian authorities have issued an alert advising people to stay home, especially in light of the attacks on oil depots,” he said.
The UN agency is also monitoring health risks from the “mass release” of toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides and nitrogen compounds into the air.
Lindmeier said additional reported Iranian attacks on oil infrastructure in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia also raised concerns about “broader regional exposure to pollution,” highlighting the long-term effects of the pollutants, which affect respiratory health and contaminate water.
Lebanon: repeated trauma
As for Lebanon, more than 100,000 people have been displaced by Israeli attacks and evacuation orders in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of people uprooted by the conflict to almost 700,000.
The representative of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in the country, Karolina Lindholm Billing, spoke of a faster pace of displacement compared to the conflict with Israel in 2024.
“We see cars lined up along the street with people sleeping in them,” he told reporters. “The majority hastily fled with almost nothing. They are seeking safety in Beirut, (the) Mount Lebanon region, northern Lebanon and parts of the Bekaa.”
The UNHCR official described her visit on Monday to a shelter in Beirut, where she met a woman in her nineties who said she had lost 11 members of her family in 2024.
“She is now displaced again and remains in the same school that became a shelter in 2024 and now again in 2026… Stories like hers truly illustrate the fear, uncertainty and repeated trauma that these hundreds of thousands of people are facing right now.”
The difficult Afghan situation
As for other impacts in the region, UNHCR said a significant number of people have been returning to Afghanistan from Iran.
According to the UN refugee agency, some 110,000 people have returned since the beginning of the year and around 1,700 have returned each day since the start of the war in the Middle East.
While insecurity and dwindling economic prospects are driving Afghans out of Iran, they face more precariousness and uncertainty upon returning to their home country.
Speaking from Islam Qala in the Afghan province of Herat, bordering Iran, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative for Afghanistan, Tajudeen Oyewale, reported an increase in returns and warned that the total number of children who have been examined and treated for malnutrition has doubled in the last week.
The consequences of the Strait of Hormuz
Supply chain disruptions due to war are also delaying essential aid.
“Geopolitical tension is already disrupting procurement routes,” Oyewale said. “What this means is that the supplies we need to care for children and their mothers in the midst of this emergency will arrive late… A malnourished child will receive the necessary nutritional supplement not immediately, but with some delay and at a higher cost.”
Jean-Martin Bauer, director of the Food and Nutrition Analysis Service of the UN World Food Program (WFP), warned of the impacts of the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Bab El-Mandeb, off the coast of the Horn of Africa.
“Two key points of the global supply chain configuration are affected by restrictions and risks, and shipping lines are diverting their services,” he said.
Shipping Premiums
Bauer explained that the need for war risk insurance for shipments means an additional cost of “between $2,000 and $4,000 for each container in risk areas.”
“We are also seeing that we need to go the long way around the Cape of Good Hope to reach some of our key geographical areas,” he said.
Mr. Bauer gave the example of WFP’s largest operation in Sudan, supplied with food purchased in India and brought through Salalah in Oman and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Port Sudan.
Today, shipments must take a much longer route when transiting Tangier, adding approximately 25 days to shipping times.
“That’s an additional 9,000 kilometers (5,592 miles) of sailing… It’s like going from coast to coast in the United States and then back,” Mr. Bauer said.