Leading humanitarian and human rights organisations are calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon as Israel wages its expanding war in the region.
In a press conference, representatives from charities, including Save the Children, Doctors without Borders and Oxfam, some of whom have hubs in Beirut, spoke of the devastating impact Israel’s war is having on Gaza and Lebanon and the growing risk of further regional escalation.
The speakers also discussed the mass displacement of civilians in Lebanon, the impact on Syrian refugees and Lebanon’s fragile healthcare system.
Lebanon has experienced a total of 8,814 airstrikes since 8 October, killing over 1,900 civilians, most of whom have been died in the last two weeks, with over 9000 injured, Nearly 1.2 million civilians have also been displaced.
Up to 97 healthcare workers have been killed and 188 injured.
Ahmad Chreif, the Deputy Medical Coordinator at Médecins du Monde/Doctors of the World (MDM), spoke about the shortage of health professionals and equipment in the Lebanese health system.
Chreif also highlighted that recurrent and chronic epidemics, notably cholera and measles, are expected to increase in overcrowded shelters, with conditions like scabies already being detected.
“Most of these displaced people have left their homes without taking the essentials, including medicines, especially for chronic illnesses,” Chreif said.
“While most NGOs are focusing on shelters, most people remain outside of these sectors.”
Jennifer Moorehead, Lebanon Country Director for Save the Children, highlighted the traumatic impact Israel’s war has had on children, noting the disruption of the educational year with schools shut down or turned into shelters, affecting 1.5 million students.
“The last couple of weeks have been a complete nightmare,” Moorehead said, noting that children in the south of Lebanon were already “traumatised” from the ongoing war since 8 October and had already been displaced.
“This year marks the fifth year of significantly disrupted education. That means kids have not received enough school days in order to learn the curriculum, which will take generations for this country to recover from that kind of learning loss.”
Sally Abi Khalil, Oxfam’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, noted that nearly 40 million people urgently needed humanitarian aid before the crisis in Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen alone.
“We’re already seeing that a regional conflict is forcing even more people to flee and more people in need, and this will deepen poverty, further contract economies, widen inequality gaps and intensify existing injustice,” Khalil says.
“There must be a step back from the brink, where this region of war further spires into unimaginable crisis. There must be de-escalation.”
“There must be an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, which would then cascade a ceasefire in Lebanon and all other countries now caught up in this violence.”
Isabelle Defourny, a doctor who just returned from a mission to Gaza and also President of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders France, spoke about displaced people living in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in Gaza and how we need a ceasefire “more than ever”.
The doctor also noted the lack of humanitarian assistance and ongoing fighting preventing aid from reaching those in need.
“The lack of humanitarian assistance is obvious,” Defourny said.
“We know that the situation is going to worsen again, since the rainy season is starting and winter is coming in two months, the temperature will drop,” making the winterisation of shelters a priority.
“The way this war is run is actually creating the condition for this to happen, and in consequence, the minimal conditions of living in Gaza are not met, are not insured for the population.”
The President of Refugees International, Jeremy Konyndyk, critiqued the United States shift from de-escalation to supporting Israel’s invasion, as well as the significant impact of the war on Lebanese civilians, Syrian refugees, and Palestinian refugees.
“We know from the way that the IDF has fought in Gaza that their targeting of Hezbollah will not only harm Hezbollah, it will harm Lebanese, it will harm Lebanese civilians, it will harm Syrian refugees, it will harm the 200,000 plus Palestinian refugees who remain in Lebanon,” Konyndyk said.
“There is ample cause to question whether the IDF will respect international humanitarian law, given what we have seen over the last year in Gaza.”
Suzanne Takkenberg from Action Against Hunger, based in Beirut, highlighted the underfunding of the humanitarian response, the many crises Lebanon has faced in the last five years, and the impact on humanitarian aid workers.
“We’ve exceeded all scenario planning that was developed by the international community in anticipation for this possible type of escalation,” Takkenberg says.
Takkenberg noted that the underfunding means that humanitarian actors lack the operational capacity to respond on the scale needed.
“We’re really seeing a level of stress, trauma and fear that is quite, quite severe at the moment.”
Aya Majzoub, Amnesty International’s Beirut-based Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, detailed the many atrocities Israel has committed, their investigations into Israeli attacks and concerns over evacuation orders.
“We want to underscore that these [evacuation] warnings do not create a free fire zone in South Lebanon, and they do not absolve the Israeli military of its obligations under international humanitarian law, never to target civilians and to take all possible measures to minimise harm to civilians,” Majzoub said.
“We’re very concerned about the availability of essential supplies, including food, medicine and fuel, for residents who chose not to leave their homes in South Lebanon or who could not leave their homes.”
“Given the scale of the atrocities being perpetrated on civilians in the region, we urge all states to immediately suspend all weapons sales and shipments to parties to the conflicts…knowing that these are being used to commit war crimes, may be considered complicit in these violations.”
