UN: Around 100,000 Lebanese refugees have fled to Syria

Around 100,000 people have crossed the border into Syria in the past two weeks as Israel continues its offensive in Lebanon, according to the United Nations (UN).

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and its partner organisations have been offering food, water, blankets, and medical support at border crossing points, and are directing displaced individuals to further assistance in Syria.

The agency has since launched a “Flash Appeal” for donations to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon and Syria.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said that an estimated one million people have been displaced in the country due to Israel’s attacks, adding that Lebanon is experiencing the “largest wave of displacement in its history.”

Those crossing into Syria find themselves in another war-torn country suffering from its own severe humanitarian crisis, worsened by devastating earthquakes in 2023.

Roughly 5,000 Lebanese refugees have sought shelter in a suburb of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

On Monday, the Israeli military warned several southern Lebanese communities near the border with Israel to leave their homes, after it begun what it called a “limited” ground operation against Hezbollah targets.

The Lebanese Health Ministry has reported over 1,000 Lebanese killed and 6,000 wounded in the past two weeks since Israel began intensifying cross-border attacks into southern Lebanon and Beirut, in what the IDF have described as an operation to target Hezbollah’s central leadership.

Third-country nationals begin evacuations

Meanwhile, several countries have begun evacuating their citizens out of Lebanon.

Bulgaria’s caretaker prime minister Dimitar Glavchev reported that 61 Bulgarians had asked to be evacuated on a second trip after 89 people, mostly families with children, were evacuated from Lebanon on Monday.

However many still remain, with only around 160 Bulgarian citizens out of 400 declaring their wish to be evacuated.

Bulgaria says that empty seats on Tuesday’s flight will be offered to citizens of other EU countries.

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has urged 1,000 Spanish civilians currently in Lebanon to leave the country.

Albares said there are still commercial flights available to leave, and that he was in contact with the Spanish defence ministry to prepare

A British government-chartered flight is due to leave Beirut on Wednesday to bring United Kingdom nationals out of Lebanon.

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The government says UK nationals, their spouse or partner, and children under the age of 18 are eligible, and priority will be given to the most vulnerable.

Until this announcement, the government urged Britons to leave the country on commercial flights.

While in Cyprus, the foreign minister says evacuations of third-country nationals from Lebanon to the east Mediterranean island nation have been “slow and controlled so far.”

Minister Constantinos Kombos said Tuesday that large-scale evacuations from Lebanon have not begun, even as Israeli ground forces crossed into southern Lebanon.

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