Lebanon's humanitarian crisis worsens as fighting continues

On Monday and Tuesday, Lebanese and Israeli civilians once again woke to explosions as fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah group continued. "The situation is catastrophic," Sukaina Hemadah, a 37-year-old mother in Beirut, told DW. Since her house in in Beirut's southern suburb of Haret Hreik was demolished by an earlier Israeli air strike, she and her four children have been staying in a tent in downtown Beirut. "We don't have enough food and rely on water deliveries from an aid organization," she said, adding that she is "scared that diseases will spread soon as the sanitary situation is awful with only one toilet for about 900 people." Hemadah is one of the more than 1.2 million Lebanese estimated to have been displaced since Lebanon was drawn into the wider Middle East war after Hezbollah escalated attacks on Israel shortly after Israel killed Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, on February 28, 2026. By Tuesday midday, 1,039 people had been killed and 2,876 injured, according to Lebanon' s health authorities. Fighting has displaced 1.2 million Lebanese who have sought refuge in shelters, or with friends and family, or are sleeping in tents Image: Ankhar Kochneva/TASS/ZUMA/picture alliance Israeli forces have expanded their ground operations in southern Lebanon, a traditional Hezbollah stronghold. On Tuesday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said that "all five bridges over the Litani [River] that were used by Hezbollah for the passage of terrorists and weapons have been blown up, and the IDF [Israeli military] will control the rest of the bridges and the security zone up to the Litani." He added that hundreds of thousands of south Lebanon residents who were displaced by fighting this month "will not return south of the Litani River until security is guaranteed for the residents of the north of Israel."Hezbollah lawmaker: 'Israel's occupation is an existential threat to Lebanon' Responding to this, Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah told news agency Reuters on Tuesday that Hezbollah will continue its fight to prevent the Israeli army from establishing a buffer zone in Lebanon's south. "Israel's occupation of south Lebanon is an existential threat to Lebanon as a state," he said. This is why Lorenzo Trombetta, a Beirut-based political analyst and author of a book on Syria, "Power and Negotiation in the Middle East," predicts that in the short term, fighting will continue in areas closest to the demarcation line, a temporary and disputed border between Israel and Lebanon. "Israeli strikes on bridges, electricity and water infrastructure aim to turn the south into a difficult environment to sustain civilian life and organized presence," Trombetta told DW. "The destruction also contributes to isolating the battlefield, especially as the Lebanese army has pulled back northward to avoid being cut off." Following an earlier ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in November 2024, which ended 11 months of skirmishes and two months of war including a large-scale Israeli ground offensive and massive destruction in Beirut and the country's south, the Lebanese army and UN troops had been deployed in the south as part of the ceasefire deal. The deal also stipulated Hezbollah's disarmament. However Hezbollah has been refusing to disarm altogether, citing the need to be able to defend the country against ongoing Israeli attacks and Israel's military occupation of five positions along the border. Israel claims that as long as Hezbollah retains its arms, it poses a threat. Hezbollah, whose military wing is classified as a terrorist organization by the US, Germany and other countries, is part of the so-called Iran-sponsored "Axis of Resistance," a series of armed proxy groups in the Middle East — including Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis in Yemen, and militias in Iraq — which are all opposed to Israel and the US. Israel's army destroyed five key bridges that joined southern Lebanon to the rest of the countryImage: Ali Hashisho/Xinhua/picture alliance Lebanese government doesn't have much leverage Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun and the country's Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said that they were working to stop the war as soon as possible. On Tuesday, Beirut withdrew the accreditation of Iran's ambassador to Lebanon and declared him persona non grata. Earlier in March, the Lebanese government outlawed all military and security activities by Hezbollah. "Only, without weighty concessions from Iran and Hezbollah, the Lebanese government will struggle to offer much of significant value to Israel in negotiations," David Wood, senior Lebanon analyst at the think tank, International Crisis Group, told DW. "Beirut has proven incapable of reining in Hezbollah's military activities by itself," he said. Being left helpless and exposed because of Hezbollah's decision to fire rockets at Israel angers Beirut local Abbass Saad. "Hezbollah doesn't care whether we are in war or peace," the 32-year-old told DW. "I am not only against Hezbollah's moves, I am against its armed existence in principle," he said. It is Hezbollah's fault that Lebanese citizens are threatened now, he argued. Crisis Group's Wood also believes Lebanese civilians will pay the highest price, people "who have no power to end the disastrous conflict." 'Nowhere feels safe': Beirut hit by ongoing Israeli strikesTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Could anger turn into civil war in Lebanon? Observers doubt that ordinary citizens' anger could escalate into a domestic conflict. "We may see localized anger … and as a result of 1.2 million Lebanese pushed out of their homes, also maybe some level of demographic conflict. But I don't think of that as a real civil war-like scenario," Ronnie Chatah, a Beirut-based political observer and host of the The Beirut Banyan podcast, told DW. This view is echoed by Trombetta. "No major Lebanese actor appears willing to enter such a confrontation, given the memory and cost of past conflicts," he said, adding that Hezbollah and the Lebanese military are part of the same social fabric and have strong incentives to avoid direct confrontation. However Wood warns that while "Hezbollah's leaders know that the group would be taking a huge risk by firing on Lebanese soldiers, which would put the group completely at odds with most other Lebanese, Hezbollah currently faces what it considers to be an existential threat, and may decide that it has very little left to lose." Moreover Kelly Petillo, Middle East and North Africa program manager at the European Council on Foreign Relations, warns that Lebanon is descending into chaos. "For many displaced people, Europe may increasingly become an option, stoking fears of a new refugee wave," she wrote in a recent op-ed. In her view, Europeans should support the Lebanese people's trust in a functioning government by promoting resilience and reconstruction, especially in the heavily bombed south. "This would help strengthen the Lebanese state's ability to meet citizens' needs," Petillo argued, adding that this would help with "rebuilding [the state's] legitimacy — in contrast to Hezbollah."Litani River bridge hit as Israel moves in south LebanonTo view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Edited by: Cathrin Schaer