Attachments
Highlights
- The escalation of hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border on 23 September 2024 triggered a series of displacement waves across Lebanese governorates. The conflict marked the deadliest period Lebanon has experienced in decades, with an average of more than three children killed every day during October and November 2024. On 27 November 2024, a ceasefire agreement came into effect.
- UNICEF supported children throughout their displacement including in collective shelters, border areas, host communities, and upon their return home. During the conflict, UNICEF provided critical services to more than 557,000 people through public systems and delivered relief items and emergency services to 695 collective shelters hosting 121,602 people.
- Following the ceasefire, UNICEF has intensified its efforts to strengthen and recover public systems, including reopening public schools and repairing water and health facilities.
Funding Overview and Partnerships
UNICEF launched the Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) Lebanon appeal on 1 October 2024, in line with the UN Inter-Agency Flash Appeali for Lebanon. The HAC outlined UNICEF’s humanitarian strategy to respond until December 2024 to the needs of one million people affected by hostilities in Lebanon, including 350,000 children. It required US$ 105 million and was 33 per cent funded. With an expanded scope, the HAC Lebanon complemented the “Syrian Refugees and Other Vulnerable Populations HAC”, which addressed previous crises in Lebanon.
UNICEF activated its Level-3 Corporate Emergency Procedures for organization-wide support to its humanitarian response in Lebanon. The measures included advancing Emergency Programme Funds (EPF) totalling US$ 13.75 million to expand operations and mainstream Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) in the response.
UNICEF would like to thank donors to the Global Humanitarian Thematic Fund, the Governments of Australia, Bulgaria, Japan, France, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and CERF, ILO, ECW, and the National Committees for UNICEF from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Kuwait, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, and United States. UNICEF has responded to hostilities since October 2023 – reports prior to 23 September 2024 are available here. UNICEF will continue working to support children in Lebanon – see here more details on the HAC Lebanon 2025.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
The escalation of hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border on 23 September 2024 led to a series of displacement waves across Lebanon. On 27 November 2024, a ceasefire agreement came into effect, marking the deadliest period Lebanon has experienced in decades, with an average of more than three children killed every day. Violations of the ceasefire terms have been reported, including the deaths of more than 27 civilians (three children) in airstrikes in Lebanon by the end of 2024, according to the OHCHR. Since October 2023, more than 4,040 people have been reported killed in Lebanon, including 316 children and 790 women, while 16,590 people have been injured, including 1,450 children and 2,827 women.
Displaced families have been returning to their homes in areas affected by hostilities, many of which are potentially contaminated with unexploded ordnance – more than 14,000 strikes were reportedly conducted in Lebanon during the conflict. After peaking at nearly one million IDPs in mid-November 2024, displacement figures decreased to 123,774 as of 31 December 2024. An estimated 867,000 IDPs have already returned to their cadasters of origin. National authorities have been gradually closing collective shelters, dropping from 1,100 to around 40 shelters on 31 December 2024. Families with damaged properties and those from southern villages yet to be demilitarised are likely to remain displaced for a longer period – around 100,000 housing units were partially or fully damaged.
Prior to the ceasefire, more than 620,000 people had left Lebanon for Syria, including 234,242 Lebanese and 390,656 Syrians, according to the Lebanese General Security Directorate. After the ceasefire, and following changes in the Syrian Government in December 2024, reverse movement flows towards Lebanon have occurred through official and unofficial border crossings. Lebanese authorities estimate that some 90,000 people, both Lebanese and Syrian, arrived from Syria since 8 December 2024. In terms of Syrians returning to Syria, UNHCR has reported that most are still assessing how the situation will evolve, with concerns relating to safety, security, documentation, housing, and schooling for children. As of 31 December 2024, UNHCR reported that around 115,000 Syrians had returned to Syria since 8 December 2024, approximately 10,000 of whom entered Syria through official crossings from Lebanon.
The conflict caused a significant impact on civilian infrastructure and public services in Lebanon, including 40 hospitals with disrupted operations, 98 Primary Health Centres and dispensaries closed, at least 45 water facilities damaged, and 114 villages with water network damages. The start of the 2024–2025 school year was delayed by several weeks, disrupting education for more than one million students. Classes in public schools resumed on 4 November 2024 but were subject to frequent operational interruptions due to the hostilities. An initial assessment conducted by UNICEF and the Ministry of Education revealed that at least 14 schools were destroyed, around 105 were heavily damaged, and nearly 500, which had previously been used as collective shelters, sustained light damage.