the number of displaced people in Lebanon over the past year could reach a million, estimates the Prime Minister

The World Food Program has launched an emergency operation to provide food assistance to one million people affected by the recent escalation of conflict in the country.

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People who fled their homes in southern Lebanon, taking refuge in a parking lot in the city of Sidon (Lebanon), September 29, 2024. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT / AFP)

Potentially the “largest population displacement in the history of the country”. Nearly a million people could have been displaced by Israeli strikes on Lebanon, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Sunday September 29. This would be equivalent to one-sixth of the country’s total population.

The World Food Program (WFP) has also launched an emergency operation to provide food aid to a million people affected by the recent escalation of the conflict in Lebanon, this UN agency announced on Sunday. “As the crisis deepens, we are preparing to help up to a million people with a mix of cash and food aid”announced Matthew Hollingworth, WFP Director for Lebanon.

Hezbollah opened a front against Israel at the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by the Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, without opening a total war. But Israel launched a massive bombing campaign a week ago on Hezbollah strongholds in the south and east of the country, as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut, killing more than 700 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. .


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