BEIRUT: About one in four people in Lebanon are expected to face acute food insecurity this summer as Israel’s military campaign in the south enters its third month, deepening a humanitarian crisis in a country already reeling from economic collapse and dwindling aid.
A new assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, the global standard for measuring hunger and malnutrition, found that 1.24 million people, or nearly one-quarter of the population assessed, are expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity through August. The report classifies them as IPC Phase 3 or higher.
Published on April 29, the report said the situation was “worse than previously anticipated” due to the “rapid escalation of hostilities.” It raised the earlier projection of 961,000 people expected to be in IPC Phase 3 or above during the same period under an October 2025 analysis.
That warning has sharpened fears that Lebanon’s crisis is no longer just economic or political, but increasingly a matter of survival.
The deterioration has been driven by a widening conflict.
Since March 2, when the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah launched attacks on northern Israel in retaliation for the joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Feb. 28 that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Israel has carried out a bombing campaign across Beirut’s southern suburbs, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley.
As the fighting has intensified, many in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah’s stronghold, have begun to fear the region is starting to resemble Gaza in the scale of destruction and displacement.
Even a US-mediated ceasefire announced on April 16 has offered little relief. Israeli attacks have continued, further eroding the basics of daily life for more than 1.2 million displaced Lebanese, including at least 390,000 children.
The displaced fled nearly one-quarter of Lebanon’s territory. About half sought shelter in public schools or tents set up in designated displacement areas. But as those sites became overcrowded, hundreds of others pitched tents along Beirut roadsides in scenes many described as catastrophic.
• Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed at least 2,715 people and wounded 8,353 since March 2, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
• Despite a ceasefire in place since mid-April, Israel issued new evacuation orders on May 3 for villages in southern Lebanon beyond the Litani River.
The strain has been compounded by the collapse of basic services, a weak government response and international aid that remains far short of soaring needs, according to UN agencies. As a result, pressure on public services has only intensified.
For Hassan Harb, 73, the crisis is deeply personal. After fleeing his hometown of Kherbet Selem in southern Lebanon, he and his family spent 27 hours on the road trying to reach relatives in Beirut.
“When we arrived, we discovered that our relatives in Beirut’s southern suburbs had themselves become displaced,” he told Arab News.
The family now lives in a tent on the roadside near the Tayouneh roundabout at the entrance to Beirut’s southern suburbs.
“We had no choice except to set up a small tent beside the wall of Beirut’s pine forest. It neither protects us from winter rain nor from the scorching sun,” Harb said.
While he and his wife sleep in the tent, their two daughters sleep in the family car. “We have been living like this for more than two months now,” he said.
The hardship has also cost Harb his livelihood. Before the war, he ran a small kiosk in his village selling tea and coffee.
“Now I am unemployed,” he said. “I used what little money I had left to buy this tent, and part of what remained was stolen. No one is helping us. We receive neither hot meals nor medical assistance. Since we were displaced, we have received only one box of canned food.
“No political party has checked on us — neither Hezbollah nor even the state itself,” he said. “We live only with the hope of returning home, and we pray that Israel has not destroyed our house.”
His daughter Fatima described the daily humiliations of displacement as she cooked potatoes in the tent.
“Meat has become a luxury,” she told Arab News. “We have no refrigerator, no kitchen, not even a bathroom.
“I go to the public restroom inside the park to wash my face, and when I want to shower, I go to a friend’s home nearby.”
For many families, however, returning home may not be an option. The scale of destruction has been immense.
A BBC Verify analysis found that more than 1,400 buildings were destroyed in less than two months, from March 2 to April 15. But BBC Verify said the real number is likely higher because access is restricted and satellite coverage is incomplete.
That destruction had been mounting even before the latest escalation. Looking at the period from Oct. 1, 2024, to Jan. 26, 2025, Amnesty International said more than 10,000 structures were severely damaged or destroyed in 26 Lebanese municipalities along the Israeli border.
Israel said in late March that it would occupy the area below the Litani River, about 19 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, and destroy homes along the frontier to create a “buffer zone” in southern Lebanon and protect northern Israel from Hezbollah’s attacks.
Human Rights Watch said statements by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz, who vowed to destroy homes “in accordance with the Rafah and Beit Hanoun model in Gaza,” could amount to forced displacement and wanton destruction, which are war crimes.
But Israel’s military operations recently moved beyond that area.
In early May, Israel issued new displacement orders in Lebanese towns and villages outside its current zone of occupation. Its operations have continued well beyond the Litani River, striking villages to which many displaced families had fled because they believed they were safer.
Entire households in Lebanon have lost their jobs and livelihoods, with many now surviving on charity.
