Rising tensions in Beirut and escalating attacks in southern Lebanon have plunged families into fear and uncertainty, forcing many to make impossible decisions in search of safety.
Health centers affected
Over the weekend, airstrikes damaged a UNFPA-supported primary health care center and safe space for women and girls in southern Lebanon, one of the few facilities still providing critical services in the area, the agency’s representative in Lebanon, Anandita Philipose, told reporters in New York via video link from Cairo, Egypt.
Another strike damaged a public hospital that offers maternal health care. Among the displaced are some 13,500 pregnant women, including 1,500 expected to give birth in the next 30 days.
UNFPA warned that around 1,500 women remain trapped in southern Lebanon without reliable access to skilled care or safe spaces for childbirth.
“When maternity wards and hospitals are damaged and destroyed, it is pregnant women who are unable to receive life-saving services,”said Ms. Philipose.
Unsafe shelters
He also raised the alarm about deteriorating conditions in the shelters.
Safety assessments found overcrowding, poor lighting, lack of privacy, and unsafe sanitation facilities, conditions that increase risks of gender-based violence, particularly for adolescent girls, female-headed households, pregnant women, and people with disabilities.
UNFPA continues to provide mobile maternal health services, psychosocial support and protection assistance together with local partners and Lebanese authorities.
Funding call
But without immediate and sustained funding, the humanitarian consequences could quickly worsen, Philipose warned.
The agency’s initial emergency appeal is only 30 percent funded and it is now seeking $25 million to continue operations through August.
If funding remains insufficient, thousands of pregnant women could lose access to skilled birth attendance and emergency maternal health care, and mobile teams serving hard-to-reach communities could be forced to scale back or stop their operations entirely, Philopose said.
“Reducing our operations means depriving more than 75,000 women of critical gender-based violence protection, case management and safe spaces at the exact time they need it most.“