Aid groups warn of impending humanitarian disaster in Lebanon

Israeli strikes targeting the Iran-backed group Hezbollah in Lebanon amplified a displacement crisis that aid groups warned could become a humanitarian disaster.

Mass evacuation orders and a bombing campaign have driven nearly 700,000 people, including 200,000 children, from their homes, the UN said.

The conflict was sparked by Hezbollah targeting Israel after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, breaking a 2024 ceasefire that in any case had largely failed.

Though both sides have traded fire, “the suffering has been hugely disproportionate,” Al Jazeera said, with almost 600 people killed in Lebanon compared to two Israeli soldiers. A UN official noted that the broader Middle East conflict also risked distracting from crises elsewhere where “needs were already great.”