Around 540,000 people have left Lebanon for war-torn Syria, UN says

Around 540,000 people have fled Lebanon to neighbouring Syria since the escalation of the war between Israel and the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia, according to UN figures released on Tuesday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that around two-thirds of the refugees coming from Lebanon were Syrian and around one-third were Lebanese citizens.

According to government figures, around 1.5 million Syrian refugees were living in Lebanon before the latest escalation in the conflict with Israel. Most of them had arrived in Lebanon after 2011 as a result of the civil war in their home country.

Around 6 million people live in Lebanon.

In addition to the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel is fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah is attacking Israel in support of the Islamist group Hamas in Gaza, which carried out a massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people.

Israel initially responded to shelling by Hezbollah with counter-attacks, but since September has launched massive airstrikes in the country and a ground offensive in southern Lebanon.