To make matters worse, the experience of the past year has shown that refugee camps, civilian apartment buildings, United Nations schools, and hospitals serving civilians and refugees are not safe spaces. Israel frequently justifies its attacks on such locations by saying they are used by Hamas or Hezbollah, despite formal UN disputes of many of these accusations.
At least 220 UN workers have also been killed in these targeted Israeli attacks in the past year – more than any other crisis ever recorded.
This contributes to humanitarian workers struggling to access populations in need, especially displaced individuals. For its part, the United States continues to be the top donor to the the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), as well as the top supplier of weapons to Israel.
BEYOND GAZA, INTO LEBANON
In Lebanon, massive displacement has also resulted from Israel’s developing war with Hezbollah.
Even before the September escalation of conflict across the Lebanon-Israel border, nearly 100,000 Lebanese had been displaced from their homes in the country’s south due to Israeli shelling. Meanwhile, approximately 63,000 Israelis were internally displaced from the country’s north due to Hezbollah’s rocket attacks.
But starting in late September, Israeli strikes on Hezbollah and Palestinian targets in Beirut and across Lebanon killed hundreds of civilians and exponentially increased internal and cross-border displacement. More than 1 million Lebanese have now fled their homes in a matter of days amid Israel’s invasion and bombardment.
In addition, Syrian refugees and the large migrant worker population in Lebanon were also displaced, with many sleeping on the streets or in makeshift tents, unable to access buildings that were converted into shelters for Lebanese.
