Attachments
SITUATION UPDATE AND HUMANITARIAN NEEDS
• Impact of Hostilities: As of 12 March, at least 91 children have reportedly been killed and 275 wounded (Ministry of Public Health – MoPH).
• Evacuation Orders: Evacuation orders have been issued for large parts of Beirut’s southern suburbs, north Bekaa, and the entire area south of the Litani River (SLR), covering around 850 km² and home to at least 500,000 people.
• Rising Displacement Figures: Displacement continues to expand across multiple governorates. Preliminary figures indicate about 816,700, roughly 285,600 children, registered displaced people, with 125,800 individuals sheltering across 590 collective sites (DRM).
• Risk of Further Displacement: Airstrikes continue across southern Lebanon, Beirut, and the Bekaa, and have expanded to new areas, including Saida District, raising the risk of secondary displacement and collateral damage. Areas that had recently received displaced families, such as Haret Saida and Tyre, were placed under sudden displacement orders, forcing at least 570 IDPs and many residents to evacuate immediately, triggering secondary displacement and leaving some families sleeping in open areas due to lack of shelter options.
• Hard to Reach Communities: Thousands of families remain cut off despite the evacuation orders, with many unable or unwilling to leave due to safety concerns, lack of transport, or fear of losing homes and livelihoods. Debris and unexploded ordnance continue to block access roads, and key transport routes, including connections to the Bekaa, have faced repeated disruptions.
• Impact on Children: Children and their families are living under constant threat and extreme distress as hostilities continue and safe options for relocation diminish, increasing risks to their physical safety, emotional wellbeing, and access to essential services.
• Escalating Needs Amid Limited Capacity: Lebanon’s prolonged economic crisis and weakened infrastructure constrain the country’s ability to absorb rapidly increasing humanitarian needs, raising the risk of swift deterioration. Sectors report persistent challenges in identifying needs and analysing gaps due to repeated and expanding displacement orders, which have forced families to relocate multiple times within days.
• Living Conditions: Many displaced households are sheltering with host communities or in informal settings, including unfinished buildings, public spaces, and vehicles, often in overcrowded or unsafe conditions.
• Education Disruption: As of 11 March, 344 public schools across the country have been converted into shelters, with 92 per cent at full capacity and hosting more than 58,000 IDPs, including 23,000 children (est). This has directly disrupted schooling for over 72,000 AM shift students and nearly 39,000 PM shift students enrolled in these facilities.
• Strain on Basic Services: The growing IDP caseload and intensifying conflict are placing significant pressure on collective shelters, host communities, and already fragile public services, including health care, water supply, sanitation, and electricity.
• Health System Under Pressure: Repeated attacks on paramedics and health workers are further degrading emergency response capacity, limiting casualty evacuation and straining an already overstretched health system.
• Damage to Infrastructure: Direct and indirect bombardments, primarily in the Bekaa and Baalbek areas, have damaged water distribution lines, a 1,000 m³ reservoir, and other critical infrastructure, affecting more than 23,000 people and reducing access to essential services. Additional impacts include damage to the Ain Eltine Pumping Station in Bekaa (civil structures, generator diesel tank, and EDL line), leaving the station non-operational and affecting 3,000 people, and a 15m break in a 6-inch ductile iron water line between Nabi Chit and Sariin in Baalbek, disrupting supply to around 10,000 individuals across Sariin and half of Nabi Chit.