Lebanon is facing its worst humanitarian crisis in over 30 years as Israel steps up its invasion. 

Civilians across the country are suffering a waking nightmare as displacement and casualties mount rapidly, including a 12-year-old boy sponsored by Islamic Relief who has been severely wounded in an airstrike. More than 1,800 people have now been killed and over 8,500 wounded.

Local authorities say more than 1 million people – 1 in 6 of the entire population – are now uprooted from their homes, already more than during the 2006 war. Islamic Relief aid workers report increasingly desperate conditions in the overcrowded communal shelters, some of which are having to turn desperate families away as there is no space left. 

Today Israel has issued new so-called ‘evacuation orders’ forcing even more civilians to leave their homes – in a terrifying echo of what we have seen in Gaza over the past year, where similar Israeli orders have forced almost the entire population of Gaza into a tiny strip of land where diseases and hunger are spreading fast. These displacement orders are inhumane, cause enormous suffering and distress to civilians, and do not absolve Israel of its responsibility to protect civilians who cannot or choose not to leave their homes. 

As Israel steps up its invasion of Lebanon, continues to bomb and blockade Gaza, violates human rights in the West Bank, and also begins to bomb Yemen, international governments must end arms sales and step up all diplomatic pressure to demand an immediate ceasefire and an end to violations of international law across the whole region. 

Civilians including children are bearing the brunt of this escalation. Islamic Relief is devastated to report that a young boy and his mother who are part of Islamic Relief’s orphan sponsorship programme in Lebanon have been badly injured during a recent airstrike. 

12-year-old Marwan* was at home preparing for breakfast with his mother and older sister when a bomb tore through their apartment in southern Lebanon. Marwan and his mother were severely injured and rushed to hospital, many of which are now completely overwhelmed. Marwan is now recovering from surgery to remove shrapnel from his abdomen and thigh, while his mother suffered multiple fractures and remains in intensive care after surgery on her colon and liver. Thankfully, Marwan’s sister was not physically hurt but is psychologically shaken. 

Marwan has been part of our sponsorship programme for several years. He has only one functioning kidney and has suffered kidney failure and recurrent blood and urine infections since birth. An Islamic Relief staff member describes him as a “kind and thoughtful young boy whose days are filled with treatments and pain rather than laugher and play like other children”. His father died when he was young and the family depends on the sponsorship money to buy daily goods and pay for Marwan’s regular doctor visits and medication, especially as Lebanon’s economic crisis has worsened over the past few years. Our prayers are with the family at this terrible time, and we hope for a swift recovery. 

The humanitarian crisis is deteriorating by the day and the UN and wider humanitarian community in Lebanon today launched an appeal for $425 million to step up the response and reach more than 1 million affected people.  While most displaced people remain within Lebanon, at least 100,000 people have also fled across the border to neighbouring Syria. 

Islamic Relief staff carrying out daily aid distributions in dozens of shelters for displaced people describe awful conditions with families sleeping in the open air and hundreds of people sharing a single toilet. 

Since the crisis escalated, Islamic Relief has distributed more than 6,434 ready-to-eat food packs, 500 packs of meat, 2,273 hygiene kits, 1,035 blankets, 1,035 mattresses and 16,459 medical items, in Mount Lebanon, Chouf, Sida, Nabatieh, Tyre, Bekaa and Baalbek.