Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in Lebanon as Israeli strikes pummelled the country, the UN said Tuesday, calling events “extremely alarming”.
“We are gravely concerned about the serious escalation in the attacks that we saw yesterday,” UN refugee agency spokesman Matthew Saltmarsh told reporters in Geneva.
“Tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes yesterday and overnight, and the numbers continue to grow,” he said.
“This is a region that has already been devastated by war and a country that knows suffering all too well,” Saltmarsh said.
He pointed out that even before the air strikes, there had been significant displacement from southern Lebanon.
“The situation is extremely alarming. It is very chaotic,” he said.
“The toll on civilians is unacceptable.”
Monday’s attacks came after an Israeli strike on southern Beirut on Friday killed dozens, including two senior Hezbollah commanders. Days earlier, coordinated communications device blasts that Hezbollah blamed on Israel killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.
Israeli air strikes killed at least 558 people on Monday, including 50 children and 94 women, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. At least four healthcare workers were killed and 16 paramedics injured, the World Health Organization said.
Hezbollah and Israel have been locked in near-daily cross-border exchanges of fire since Palestinian militants Hamas staged an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7.
Monday’s bombardment of Lebanon was by far the largest since the war between Israel and the Iran-backed militant group in mid-2006.
