THE United Nations said on Tuesday that at least 30,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon as a result of Israeli airstrikes and shelling across several areas, particularly in the country’s south, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Speaking at a press conference in Geneva, UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) spokesperson Babar Baloch reported large-scale displacement in multiple parts of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa region, and Beirut’s southern suburbs after Israeli forces issued evacuation warnings to residents of more than 53 Lebanese villages and carried out intensive air raids in those areas.
An estimated 30,000 people had been registered and sheltered in collective accommodation centres, Baloch said, adding that many more spent the night in their cars along roadsides.
Samer Abdeljaber, the World Food Programme’s (WFP) regional director, told reporters in Cairo that the number of displaced people is expected to rise significantly.
He noted that the Lebanese government began opening shelters on Monday, prompting the WFP to distribute hot meals and ready-to-eat food to support those displaced.
The Israeli military has been carrying out a heavy bombardment campaign in Lebanon since Monday, saying it is targeting Hezbollah in response to attacks launched into Israeli territory. According to official figures released on Monday, 52 people were killed.
Hezbollah launched a wave of ‘precision missiles and a swarm of drones’ towards Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and in response to Israeli ceasefire violations.
Abdeljaber expressed concern about the impact of the conflict on maritime and air transport, warning that disruptions would have direct consequences for humanitarian operations, including supply chains and the movement of aid personnel.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said on Tuesday he was ‘deeply shocked’ by the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on civilians, amid widespread fear and panic across the region. He urged all parties to ‘come to their senses and put an end to the violence.’
Türk expressed deep concern over the impact of large-scale hostilities on civilians and civilian infrastructure since the conflict escalated with Israeli and US strikes on Iran, Iran’s retaliatory attacks on countries in the region, and Hezbollah’s subsequent involvement.
A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was reached in late November 2024. Under the deal, Israel was expected to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon, but it has maintained positions in five locations it considers strategic and has continued to conduct regular strikes, often saying it is targeting Hezbollah sites or operatives.
The Lebanese government has pledged to disarm Hezbollah south of the Litani River near the Israeli border, under significant US pressure and amid fears of further Israeli strikes.
On Tuesday evening, Hezbollah announced military operations in southern Lebanon, including the downing of an Israeli drone and the targeting of two Merkava tanks.
The group said it shot down an Israeli drone over Nabatieh and targeted a Merkava tank at the Sammaqah site in the occupied Kfar Shouba Hills, claiming a direct hit and struck another Merkava tank in Tal Nahas near the outskirts of Kfar Kila in southern Lebanon, again reporting a direct hit.
These developments follow the launch of Israeli and US military operations against Iran which have resulted in hundreds of deaths, including senior security officials and Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Tehran responded by firing missiles and drones towards Israel and carried out attacks on US bases and sites in regional countries.
Palestine death toll in Gaza now 72,1117
- The death toll from the Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which started on October 7th, 2023, surged to 72,117, according to the health ministry on Wednesday morning.
The ministry added that the total number of the wounded also surged to 171,801 people.
Since the ceasefire agreement took effect on October 10th, 2025, at least 633 Palestinians have been killed, and 1,703 others have been injured.
The authorities in the Gaza Strip registered 3,044 births February, compared to 183 deaths.
- As the world’s attention is consumed by the beating drums of war and the widening scope of Zionist-American aggression across the region, with tensions flaring from Iran to Lebanon and through the Gulf, the Israeli occupation is attempting to conceal its gravest crimes behind the smoke of battle.
Inside its prisons, which have become what many describe as ‘graveyards for the living’, human slaughterhouses devoid of the most basic humanitarian standards, Palestinian prisoners are subjected to systematic abuse away from the world’s gaze.
The Red Ribbons Campaign is sounding the alarm and reminding a world that behind those walls there are more than 9,000 Palestinian prisoners, including 350 children whose childhoods are being stolen, and over 3,000 administrative detainees held without charge or trial.
66 Palestinian women prisoners are enduring a systematic campaign of psychological and physical destruction. Most are held under administrative detention orders that are routinely renewed without charge.
Among them are doctors, academics, lawyers and mothers. Three are minors, while others are cancer patients facing a slow death due to deliberate malnutrition and severe medical neglect.
What these women are facing amounts to the abduction of civilian hostages rather than lawful detention. This comes as the Israeli authorities move forward with measures effectively amounting to the execution of prisoners, all amid deafening international silence and a troubling lack of response from both near and distant allies.
Adnan Hmidan, coordinator of the Red Ribbons Campaign, said: ‘Let the world hear this clearly: The escalation across the region and the widening aggression will not be used as a cover to forget our imprisoned women or allow the occupation to single them out.
‘We are not dealing with a prison authority, but with a system that kidnaps hostages and uses them as tools of political and psychological pressure.
‘The continued detention of our doctors, academics and mothers under the mercy of Israeli jailers, while they face threats of execution and deliberate starvation, is a test of the remaining conscience of our nation.
‘The dust of missiles across the region will not drown out the cries of cancer patients in prison cells. Our mobilisation will not stop until the chains are broken. Freedom is a right that cannot be postponed, no matter how great the challenges.
‘The Red Ribbons Campaign announced a series of solidarity events to take place over the weekend from Friday, 6th March, designated as a “Friday of Rage”, through Sunday, 8th March.
‘The campaign calls on people across the Arab world and supporters of justice globally to take to the streets and raise their voices in protest against the policy of executions and the abuse of captive women prisoners.
‘Standing with the women prisoners is a stand for the dignity of the nation. Freedom for the captive women.’
