Over 50,000 Flee Lebanon to Syria amid Escalating Israeli Airstrikes: UN
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – More than 50,000 people have fled Lebanon to Syria as Israeli airstrikes intensify, the UN refugee agency said, amid growing concerns of a worsening humanitarian crisis.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) chief, Filippo Grandi, reported that over 50,000 Lebanese and Syrians residing in Lebanon have crossed into Syria, seeking refuge from the ongoing Israeli airstrikes.
Grandi shared in a message on X that "well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon."
The total number of displaced individuals within Lebanon has now reached 211,319, with 118,000 of those displaced since Israel began its airstrikes on Monday.
The UNHCR previously cautioned that the region "cannot afford a new displacement crisis."
Israel's bombardment of Beirut, described as the most intense in years, has resulted in the deaths of more than 700 people, including at least 50 children, since the attacks began earlier in the week.
UNICEF, the UN agency for children, noted that Israeli air raids in recent days have claimed the lives of more children per day than during the 2006 war, which lasted 33 days.