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UN Official: Lebanon Displacement 'Devastating', Support Insufficient

Displaced people sit in a makeshift tent set up on Beirut's seaside promenade - AFP
Displaced people sit in a makeshift tent set up on Beirut's seaside promenade - AFP
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UN Official: Lebanon Displacement 'Devastating', Support Insufficient

Displaced people sit in a makeshift tent set up on Beirut's seaside promenade - AFP
Displaced people sit in a makeshift tent set up on Beirut's seaside promenade - AFP

The displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon is "devastating", a UN migration official has said, warning international support was falling short of the needs, amid intense Israeli bombing.

After a year of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which launched attacks on Israel in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza, Israel last month escalated attacks in Lebanon's south, east and south Beirut.

The war has killed hundreds of people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million others, most of them since September 23, according to Lebanese authorities.

"With this wave of displacement, we see huge needs... the situation is devastating," said Othman Belbeisi, the International Organization for Migration's Middle East and North Africa director.

"Lebanon needs more support. What has been offered so far is minimal and does not match the needs," he told AFP on Thursday during a visit to Beirut.

The IOM has "verified and tracked" some 690,000 internally displaced people in Lebanon, Belbeisi said, noting about 400,000 others had reportedly fled the country, many of them for neighbouring Syria.

Around a quarter of the displaced in Lebanon, or more than 185,00 people, are in official shelters such as schools, according to the IOM.

Around another a quarter have rented accommodation, while some 47 percent are living in "host settings", the IOM said.

- Aid appeal -

Many people are staying with relatives, while some with nowhere to go are sleeping on the streets.

"It's really sad to see this (displacement) again in Lebanon," Belbeisi said, in a country that endured a 1975-90 civil war and a monthlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006.

People have fled their homes "with nothing, out of fear, and now they have to rebuild everything once again", he added, as smoke rose from Israeli airstrikes in the city's southern suburbs.

The UN has appealed for $426 million to address the humanitarian crisis in the country over the next three months, including $32 million for the IOM to assist some 400,000 people, Belbeisi said.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA said Friday the appeal was just 12 percent funded, with $51 million received.

Lebanon has been enduring a five-year economic crisis that has impoverished many and crippled government services.

"We hope that everybody will be able to scale up their capacity," Belbeisi said.

"We want this (displacement) to end as soon as possible," he added.

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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
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Cyprus Can Help Rid Syria of Chemical Weapons, Search for its Missing, Says Top Diplomat

FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah
FILE PHOTO: A UN chemical weapons expert, wearing a gas mask, holds a plastic bag containing samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in the Ain Tarma neighborhood of Damascus August 29, 2013. REUTERS/Mohamed Abdullah

Cyprus stands ready to help eliminate Syria’s remaining chemical weapons stockpiles and to support a search for people whose fate remains unknown after more than a decade of war, the top Cypriot diplomat said Saturday.

Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said Cyprus’ offer is grounded on its own past experience both with helping rid Syria of chemical weapons 11 years ago and its own ongoing, decades-old search for hundreds of people who disappeared amid fighting between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriots in the 1960s and a 1974 Turkish invasion, The AP reported.

Cyprus in 2013 hosted the support base of a mission jointly run by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to remove and dispose of Syria's chemical weapons.

“As a neighboring country located just 65 miles from Syria, Cyprus has a vested interest in Syria’s future. Developments there will directly impact Cyprus, particularly in terms of potential new migratory flows and the risks of terrorism and extremism,” Kombos told The AP in written replies to questions.

Kombos said there are “profound concerns” among his counterparts across the region over Syria’s future security, especially regarding a possible resurgence of extremist groups like ISIS in a fragmented and polarized society.

“This is particularly critical in light of potential social and demographic engineering disguised as “security” arrangements, which could further destabilize the country,” Kombos said.

The diplomat also pointed to the recent proliferation of narcotics production like the stimulant Captagon that is interconnected with smuggling networks involved in people and arms trafficking.

Kombos said ongoing attacks against Syria’s Kurds must stop immediately, given the role that Kurdish forces have played in combating extremist forces like the ISIS group in the past decade.

Saleh Muslim, a member of the Kurdish Presidential Council, said in an interview that the Kurds primarily seek “equality” enshrined in rights accorded to all in any democracy.

He said a future form of governance could accord autonomy to the Kurds under some kind of federal structure.

“But the important thing is to have democratic rights for all the Syrians and including the Kurdish people,” he said.

Muslim warned that the Kurdish-majority city of Kobani, near Syria’s border with Türkiye, is in “very big danger” of falling into the hands of Turkish-backed forces, and accused Türkiye of trying to occupy it.

Kombos said the international community needs to ensure that the influence Türkiye is trying to exert in Syria is “not going to create an even worse situation than there already is.”

“Whatever the future landscape in Syria, it will have a direct and far-reaching impact on the region, the European Union and the broader international community,” Kombos said.