![People check for drone attacks as Israeli airstrikes continue while people flee and take refuge in parks and squares in Beirut, Lebanon on September 29, 2024. [Murat Şengül - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AA-20240930-35775236-35775232-FEAR_IN_BEIRUT_UNDER_ISRAELI_ATTACK_DUE_TO_SHELLING.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
The United Nations’ Refugee Agency has revealed that at least a quarter of Lebanon is being subject to Israel’s evacuation orders, as Tel Aviv steams ahead with its invasion of the country.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the UN Refugee Agency’s (UNHCR) Middle East Director, Rema Jamous Imseis, stated that Israel’s latest evacuation orders to 20 villages in southern Lebanon are resulting in the increasing exodus of displaced Lebanese further north.
“That in a country of that size, which is relatively small, and a population that’s estimated around 5 million people, you can imagine how dramatic it is that over 1 million people are now without shelter and on the move, or not rather without shelter because they are being housed in collective centres, but are being forced to flee their homes in search of safety,” Imseis said.
“Now we have over 25 per cent of the country under a direct Israeli military evacuation order,” she added. “People are heeding these calls to evacuate, and they’re fleeing with almost nothing.”
Since the escalation of Israel’s strikes in southern Lebanon last month – with the stated aim of targeting Hezbollah and its capabilities – and the ground invasion of Israeli forces into the country in recent weeks, the number of Lebanese who have been forced to flee their homes has reportedly reached 1.2 million. Amongst those people were over 400,000 children, causing the UN to today warn of a “lost generation” in Lebanon.
According to the country’s Health Ministry, over 2,300 Lebanese have been killed in Israeli strikes, almost 75 per cent of them over the past month.