Speaking from Beirut, in the aftermath of Lebanon’s “worst day in 18 years”, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) The country’s deputy representative, Ettie Higgins, said if the violence did not stop, the consequences could be “unconscionable”.
The large-scale Israeli strikes, carried out in retaliation for attacks by the armed group Hezbollah, killed at least 492 people on Monday, including 35 children and 58 women, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said. Another 1,645 people were wounded across the country.
Reminder of the rules of war
UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani expressed his concern on the “sharp escalation” of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah and called on all parties “to immediately cease violence and ensure the protection of civilians.”
Since the war in Gaza began last October, cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah has increased, displacing tens of thousands of people in Israel and southern Lebanon. The situation escalated further last week when dozens of people in Lebanon were killed and thousands injured when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members exploded. Over the weekend, Hezbollah reportedly fired 150 rockets into northern Israel.
“Any further escalation in this conflict will be absolutely catastrophic for all children in Lebanon, and particularly families from towns and villages in the south and Bekaa, in eastern Lebanon” who have been forced to flee their homes, UNICEF’s Ms Higgins said. She stressed that the newly displaced are in addition to the 112,000 people who have already been uprooted since October last year.
Flights in panic
The UNICEF official said schools across the country were closed on Tuesday, leaving “children at home out of fear.” Those on the journey “arrive with only the clothes they were carrying” as many “slept in cars and on the side of the road, in Beirut and Saïda,” she said, while “their caregivers themselves are afraid of the uncertainty of the situation.”
UNICEF reported that 87 reception centres have been set up to accommodate the displaced, whose numbers are growing by the hour, in the south, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Baalbek, Hermel, Bekaa and the northern provinces.
From the UN refugee agency (UN refugee agency), spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh noted that Lebanon has been a “generous host” to refugees for many years, including the estimated 1.5 million Syrians living in the country.
He warned that the current escalation will leave many facing displacement once again – a new crisis “after COVID-19the economic downturn and the impact of the explosion in Beirut’s port more than four years ago.
History repeats itself
Ms Shamdasani of the OHCHR deplored the “spillover” of violence and asked: “Have we learned nothing from what happened in Gaza over the past year?”
Referring to the impact of last week’s pager attacks, she said it was “extremely abnormal” that “people were losing their eyes and that hospitals are not able to cope with the amount of amputations they are having to perform”.
“We’ve all heard this before, right? Last year and this past year. This is not normal and this has to stop,” she insisted.
“The High Commissioner is calling for immediate de-escalation. The United Nations General Assembly is meeting. World leaders are meeting in New York. They must prioritize ending this conflict.”
Ms Shamdasani also pointed out that Hezbollah has “fired hundreds of rockets into Israel”, raising concerns about the “indiscriminate nature” of their attacks.
“Our calls for respect for international humanitarian law apply to all parties to the conflict, and that of course includes Hezbollah,” she said.
Healthcare overwhelmed
Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Lebanon, said more than 2,000 operations had been performed on wounded people following last week’s attacks and that nearly 1,000 people were still in hospital.
Speaking from Beirut, Dr Abubakar said WHO had been working with Lebanese health authorities since October last year to prepare for a possible mass casualty event, but that the impact of the wireless attacks was “unprecedented” and “could overwhelm any health system”. Most of the injuries were to the face and hands, he explained, with many people suffering both eye and hand injuries, requiring “two separate surgeries”.
“Most of the people who are still in the hospital … are still waiting for surgery, but also for amputation,” he said. “We have never seen so many injuries to the hands, the face, the nerves,” requiring interventions by specialized doctors.
Panic, fear and chaos
Regarding Monday’s deadly airstrikes, OHCHR addressed reports that tens of thousands of people in Lebanon had received mobile phone messages from the Israeli army instructing them to stay away from sites where Hezbollah was storing weapons. Ms Shamdasani said the messages appeared to assume that civilians would be aware of weapons caches and had contributed to spreading “panic, fear and chaos”.
“If you warn people of an impending attack, that doesn’t absolve you of the responsibility to protect civilians,” she said. “The duty to protect civilians is paramount. So whether or not you’ve sent a warning to civilians to flee, (that) doesn’t make it right to then attack those areas, knowing that the impact on civilians is going to be huge.”
“What we have seen here raises questions about respect for international humanitarian law,” which is meant to “protect civilians and therefore our common humanity,” Ms Shamdasani insisted.