09/29/2024 – 10:05
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati says that the country is experiencing the greatest displacement in its history due to Israeli attacks; One-sixth of the population is in shelters or on the streets. Around a million people have fled their homes in recent days in Lebanon due to Israel’s unprecedented campaign of attacks in the south and east of the country and in the suburbs of Beirut, the ministry announced. Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati this Sunday (29/09).
“The number is large, it is estimated that one million people have been forced to move from one place to another in recent days. It is considered the largest displacement operation in the history of Lebanon,” he said at a press conference. The contingent of displaced people announced by the government represents a sixth of the country’s population.
“Managing this displacement does not just depend on finding shelter and food for these people, but there are other things, such as ensuring sanitation in these reception centers to avoid the spread of diseases or the problem of garbage accumulation,” Mikati said.
Longtime enemies Hezbollah and Israel have been involved in almost daily attacks since the Palestinian extremist group Hamas launched a terrorist attack against Israel on October 7. In the last week, the offensive has worsened, threatening to spread across the Middle East.
End of hostilities under the radar
Mikati claims that his country “has no other option than diplomacy”. He appeals to UN Security Council resolution 1701 of August 2006, which called for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Lebanon has faith in the international community, in international legitimacy and in the UN, and does not believe in the law of the strongest,” he said.
In 2006, more than a thousand people were killed during a month-long conflict between Israel and the Lebanese Shiite movement. The trigger for the war was the launch of rockets by Hezbollah against Israel, killing eight Israeli soldiers, in addition to two captured.
In the current escalation of the offensive, Israeli military forces have already killed more than 700 Lebanese, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. On Monday alone, more than 500 people were killed in bombings and attacks using explosive pagers and walkie-talkies, the bloodiest day in the country since the end of the Lebanese Civil War in 1990.
On Friday, Israeli airstrikes hit Hezbollah’s HQ and killed leaders of the extremist group, including leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, then considered the most powerful man in Lebanon.
On Saturday and Sunday, after announcing the death of the Shiite leader, Israel resumed carrying out attacks against Hezbollah targets inside and outside the capital Beirut. According to the Lebanese authorities and reports from those at the scene, the bombings have affected several civilians, including children and women.
“I didn’t even take clothes with me, I never thought we would go out like this, suddenly we are on the street,” Rihab Naseef, 56, resident of south Beirut, told AFP.
On Saturday, September 28, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said that, to date, “more than 200,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon” and more than 50,000 have fled to Syria – not counting the underreporting of those who are on the street, without shelter.
To facilitate the receipt of humanitarian aid, Prime Minister Najib Mikati ordered that taxes on donations from abroad be removed and that they be handed over directly to the state.
The World Food Program (WFP), the UN hunger relief agency, announced earlier this Sunday an emergency operation to help one million people affected by violence in Lebanon.
sf (AFP, EFE, ots)
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