Beirut, Lebanon – Four weeks after the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran, millions of civilians are suffering in Lebanon, which is now facing the second major attack by Israel in less than two years.
About a quarter of Lebanon’s population has been displaced since Israel ordered a mass mandatory evacuation of southern Lebanon and Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut.
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Many victims are feeling extremely frustrated and exhausted. And even those who are not displaced are feeling the pressure as deadly Israeli attacks continue, gasoline prices rise, business overall slows and there are few signs that the conflict will end soon.
Samiha, a Palestinian teacher who lived near Tire in southern Lebanon and recently moved to Beirut, said the experience was “not good at all.” But her family came into this round more prepared because Israel had recently launched a campaign in Lebanon.
“This is not the first time for us. Now we know more about where to go.” Nonetheless, she insisted, “We don’t know how long this problem will persist or whether there will be a solution.”
Foreigners are the most vulnerable
Israel again stepped up its war on Lebanon on March 2 after Hezbollah responded to its first Israeli attack in more than a year.
Hezbollah, a close ally of Iran, claimed the attack was retaliation for the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei two days earlier. The ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah ostensibly came into effect on November 27, 2024, despite the United Nations counting more than 10,000 instances of Israeli ceasefire violations and hundreds of Lebanese deaths during that period.
After Hezbollah’s response, Israel stepped up its attacks in the south and declared it would occupy southern Lebanon. Israel has also ordered mandatory evacuations of several villages in southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Bekaa Valley, creating a massive refugee crisis of at least 1.2 million people, according to the Lebanese government. Now Israel has taken over southern Lebanon and established a so-called security zone, while also announcing its intention to destroy more villages along the southern border.
The crisis has taken a severe toll on people living in Lebanon, especially the country’s most vulnerable.
“The most vulnerable cases we are facing are basically migrant workers, Syrians, foreign groups, etc.,” Lena Ayoubi, a volunteer who organized relief efforts near Biel on Beirut’s coast, told Al Jazeera.
She said people who have suffered greatly during this period include people with chronic illnesses, cancer patients on dialysis, people without access to insulin and refugees without refrigerators to store their medicines.
‘The scale and speed are different’
A series of catastrophes are unfolding, with women, children and those suffering from psychological problems suffering the most, according to a variety of sources, including aid workers, volunteers and UN staff. It is said that the humanitarian crisis in 2024 was serious, but in 2026 it will be at a completely different level.
“Now the scale, speed and number of people affected have changed significantly,” Anandita Philipose, Lebanon representative for the United Nations Sexual and Reproductive Health Agency (UNFPA), told Al Jazeera. “The mass evacuation orders are new. The scale of the displacement is new. The fact that civilian infrastructure has been targeted is new.”
In particular, many women have been driven out not only from their homes but also from their health care networks, including offices and support systems that could have helped them during their pregnancy.
Philippos said, “Pregnant women do not stop giving birth even during conflict, and women do not stop menstruating even during conflict.”
According to Israel’s Ministry of Public Health, the recent war with Lebanon has so far killed 1,094 people in the country and injured 3,119. In just three weeks, the dead included 81 women and 121 children.
Heidi Diedrich, director of World Vision in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera: “Children have once again been caught up in this situation. Regardless of their protected status as civilians and their rights as children under international humanitarian law, children are being deeply affected by the violence.” “We are deeply concerned that this escalation will continue to impact Lebanese children in the coming weeks and even months.”
never ending trauma
In an office building in Beirut, two volunteers sit behind a desk waiting for the phone to ring. Volunteers are closely monitored by clinical psychologists. On the other side are people who ask for help in their darkest moments.
This is the office of Lebanon’s National Lifeline for Emotional Support and Suicide Prevention (1564), a collaboration between the National Mental Health Program and Embrace, a non-profit organization focused on mental health. 1564 is the phone number that anyone needing psychological support can call.
“We have been in the worst situation for the past two years,” Jad Chamoun, operations manager at National Lifeline 1564, told Al Jazeera from the Lifeline center in Beirut.
“Even after the ceasefire, people were still living in harsh conditions and there were still refugees.”
According to the International Organization for Migration, there were about 64,000 refugees in Lebanon before March 2. According to a March 2025 report from Lebanon’s National Mental Health Program, three out of five Lebanese people “are currently testing positive for depression, anxiety or PTSD.” And that was before the current strengthening.
“The living conditions we find ourselves in are a constant trauma, because the trauma never ends,” Chamoun said. Lebanon suffered one of the world’s worst economic crises in 2019, which continues today. In the years since, the Lebanese people have been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut explosion, mass migration and now two major Israeli military operations in quick succession.
Amid the current violence, the number of calls has increased significantly, from about 30 calls per day during the 2024 Israeli attack to nearly 50 calls per day now, Shamoon said. But he added that the currency’s peak tends to be in the months following the end of a conflict or crisis. Right now, people are in survival mode.
A series of disasters and Israel’s brutal attacks have pushed many people in Lebanon close to or far beyond breaking point. Many people are falling through the cracks. The volunteers and professionals who carry out these activities are doing their best to reach as many people as possible.
“We try to sit with them in the darkness that weighs heavily around us. We try to share this pain with them,” Chamoun said. “And I think this is the heaviest thing I’ve had lately.”
