Middle East is now facing a major humanitarian emergency

Lebanon’s escalating conflict has displaced nearly 100,000 people and forced tens of thousands of Syrian refugees to cross back into Syria, intensifying a humanitarian emergency and raising concerns over civilian protection and refugee returns, as reported on March 6th by Reuters.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned that the figures are likely incomplete, as movements continue and access remains uncertain and unreported in several affected areas.

This new exodus arrives as a direct consequence of Israel’s large scale evacuation orders covering parts of southern Lebanon and areas of Beirut, issued as fighting with Hezbollah intensified after the U.S.-Israeli air campaign against Iran began on February 28. For Lebanon, already weakened by economic collapse, political urgent procedures and pressure, the latest displacement wave threatens to deepen an already established crisis affecting both citizens and refugees.

UNHCR emergency chief Ayaki Ito told reporters in Geneva that the conflict has become a “major humanitarian emergency” requiring immediate mobilization across the Middle East and beyond.

The World Health Organization, for its part, said it is increasing disease surveillance in Lebanon since overcrowding, weak sanitation and inadequate access to safe water could trigger secondary health emergencies. Regional officials have warned that displacement on this scale can quickly produce a quick spreading of infectious disease, particularly where health systems are already under stress and with a problematic lack of resources.

The crisis also carries serious implications in the broader conflict, since under international humanitarian law, all parties are required to distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants and to avoid attacks that are indiscriminate or disproportionate. Evacuation orders do not in themselves remove civilian protections, nor do they permit damage to hospitals, shelters or other protected civilian infrastructure.

As the conflict widens, aid agencies and international observers are warning that the region now faces not only a humanitarian emergency, but a test of compliance with transnational human right and law of war which might lead to further complications.

Reuters, maghrebi.org