Lebanon: MSF scales up response as displacement rises across the country

Updated on 18 March

What is the situation in Lebanon?

In Lebanon, the past few days have seen a sharp escalation in violence which many people, including our staff, have described as entering another cycle of suffering that has in reality never stopped since the ceasefire began 15 months ago.

According to the Lebanese authorities, as of 12 March, more than 687 people have been killed, and close to 1,780 injured as a result of Israel's relentless bombing. This is in addition to the 370 people killed by Israel since the “ceasefire” began in November 2024.

This recent escalation is part of an ongoing pattern of attacks with daily strikes from the Israeli forces, despite the November 2024 “ceasefire agreement” which has never brought real safety to people in Lebanon. Thousands of families have already been displaced, and the latest strikes and sweeping evacuation orders are forcing even more people to flee with nowhere safe to go.

Today, around 14 per cent of Lebanon's total area is under evacuation orders. On 3 March, the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for more than 150 towns and villages south of the Litani River—an area covering around eight per cent of Lebanon’s territory, and on 5 March to southern Beirut, collectively home to over a million people and amounting to about quarter of the population, according to authorities.

Late at night on 5 March to mid-day of 6 March, Israel again issued new evacuation orders to several towns in the Bekaa valley, east of Lebanon. Such blanket orders have stranded and uprooted entire communities at once and raised serious concerns about potential violations of international humanitarian law. On 12 March, Israel increased its evacuation orders further north of Litani River, reaching Zahrani River.

For many of these people, especially in southern Lebanon, evacuation orders mean reliving the trauma of displacement all over again. Families, some of whom were only just beginning to recover from previous fighting have been told to leave their homes; many of them were still displaced from 2023 and 2024, with nowhere safe to go. Some have been left stranded on the roads with children, elderly relatives, and sick family members, facing extremely harsh conditions.

Our teams are witnessing these experiences firsthand. Our Lebanese colleagues have also been affected: some have fled with their families to safer areas, while others have been stranded on the roads themselves.

Hospitals are receiving casualties, and humanitarian needs are increasing rapidly. Our teams have been deploying mobile clinics and supporting health facilities. However, civilians and healthcare services must be protected, and people must have immediate access to safety and medical care.

What are your teams seeing?

Since 2 March, our teams have been on the ground assessing and beginning to respond in several collective shelters, towns and cities across Lebanon, where there are tens of thousands of displaced people. Many of them have been displaced a few times before, during the previous escalations.

Shelters are overcrowded and some people are sleeping in their cars or on the streets in different cities. Many civilians decided to stay in their homes, despite the Israeli orders to leave, and many others were forced to come back due to a lack of space in shelters, or a lack of means to rent somewhere.

What are the main medical and non-medical needs of displaced people now?

At the moment, the main needs that our teams are seeing in the shelters are the lack of basic relief items, such as mattresses, blankets, hygiene kits, and cleaning kits.

There's also a need for clean water and sanitation support, especially for the internally displaced people sleeping in their cars on the sides of the streets or residing in overcrowded shelters - where a lack privacy increases the risk of sexual and gender-based violence for women and girls.

In terms of medical needs, access to primary care is needed as many healthcare centres and dispensaries are overwhelmed with large numbers of patients, including notably a lack of medications for chronic diseases and acute medications. Mental health is also a major need, especially as this is not the first time for many to be displaced and have been living in constant fear and bombing for more than two years now. Some primary healthcare centres and dispensaries also fall in areas that are under evacuation orders, impacting continuity of care for patients.

What is the situation of hospitals and primary healthcare centres across Lebanon?

Many primary healthcare centres and dispensaries are overwhelmed with large numbers of patients including injuries, trying to provide them with as much support as possible. Hospitals in affected areas are receiving casualties, and MSF is in contact with several facilities to assess gaps and potential support.

Some hospitals such as Baalbek Governmental Hospital and Nabatiyeh Governmental Hospital are receiving high numbers of injuries and have requested MSF assistance for materials. We are coordinating with them to send some medical supplies. Moreover, similar to the 2024 escalation, attacks and impacts on healthcare facilities and workers have been reported, especially in areas that fall south of the Litani river, where Israel is forcibly evacuating villages and towns.

This comes at a time when hospitals and the healthcare system are already extremely fragile, as the escalation in Lebanon has not stopped since 2024. Many needs and gaps on the ground remain unmet, and this latest escalation is further increasing the humanitarian and medical needs.

What are MSF's activities in Lebanon?

Our teams across Lebanon quickly adapted their activities to absorb the emerging needs.

Operationally, MSF rapidly launched a nationwide emergency response. In the first days of the escalation, MSF teams swiftly began distributing essential relief items, like blankets, mattresses, hygiene kits, and drinking water to affected people and shelters.

As of 13 March, MSF has deployed 12 mobile clinics in the southern city of Saida, in Mount Lebanon, Beirut, Bekaa, and the north.

While we scale up support to hospitals and primary healthcare centres (medical donations, direct trauma interventions, etc.), our teams are also launching mental health helplines to support distressed individuals in remote and hard-to-access areas.

Additionally, our bases in Baalbek-Hermel and Nabatiyeh, areas that have been heavily struck, have been relocated to safer areas while scaling up the emergency response.  
It is also worth noting that while many of our colleagues are personally impacted or displaced, our teams remain fully dedicated and are responding.

After a few days of interruption due to the insecurity, our clinics in Beirut, Hermel and Arsal, quickly reopened to ensure continuity of care, and are actively including alternative referral pathways and service adaptations as needed.

In Lebanon's Nabatiyeh and South governorates, we had to suspend our activities due to the evacuation orders issued by Israel and lack of security guarantees for our staff to work.

We continue to be in touch with the Lebanese authorities and other organisations, and we are ready to increase our support as needs require.

What do you call for?

In Lebanon, as in any place of conflict where we are present in, MSF calls for the protection of civilians, healthcare workers, and medical facilities, and for respect of international humanitarian law.

At a time when the United Nation's (UN) 2026 Lebanon Response Plan is only 14 per cent financed, and contingency stocks are insufficient, MSF calls for a swift mobilisation of emergency and flexible funding to scale up the response to the urgent needs of displaced people and host communities alike, in a context of an already strained health system and limited access to supplies.

How many people have been displaced internally and to other countries? Are MSF teams responding to displacement outside of Lebanon?

As of 12 March, Lebanese authorities reported that 822,600 people had been displaced internally and were registered as staying in official shelters. However, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.

We have also witnessed people, particularly the elderly and those with disabilities, being trapped in border towns following Israel’s announcement of a ground incursion, as they were unable to evacuate.

According to the United Nations, there have also been increased crossings from Lebanon into Syria following Israeli evacuation orders, with at least 50,000 people – mostly Syrians – having made the journey already.

Our teams are present in neighboring countries such as in Syria, monitoring developments and assessing movements of people, while running regular activities in these countries.

At this stage, we have not launched an operational response across the borders.

Are people being excluded from shelters due to nationality?

We have not witnessed anything firsthand, but it is being reported in the news. What we can say is that needs are overwhelming and access to shelter must be based on need, without discrimination.

Lebanon is home to around one million Syrian refugees, around 450,000 Palestinian refugees and almost half a million migrant workers coming from sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

How does MSF ensure the safety of its medical teams when operating in conflict zones?

MSF places the safety of its medical teams as a top priority in all situations. As anywhere else in the world, we are in touch with different parties to ensure the safety and neutrality of our medical facilities. Our teams work diligently to maintain impartiality and independence, which are critical to our ability to provide medical care to all individuals.

Due to the evacuation orders and insecurity in southern Lebanon, we had to relocate our projects and staff from Nabatiyeh and South towns to areas above the Litani River to ensure their safety.

In addition, as always, our message is clear: medical staff, medical facilities and patients must be protected at all times.

Is MSF evacuating its international staff from Lebanon?

While some international colleagues were relocated out of Lebanon while continuing to provide remote support, some other emergency expert colleagues have arrived in the country in the past few days to enforce and scale up our operations. Today, MSF has 380 staff in Lebanon.

This allows new staff members with more emergency experience to double down on efforts to respond to the massive needs of displaced families and people affected by the ongoing conflict.

MSF is collaborating and coordinating closely with the Ministry of Public Health and all other humanitarian actors to ensure the optimisation of resources for an efficient and timely response. Simultaneously, our teams are constantly assessing and monitoring further developments and needs to adapt their activities.

Is it safe for MSF to operate?

We adapt our operations on a daily basis based on security conditions. Our priority is to continue providing care where possible and safe, and to support overstretched facilities. When insecurity forces closures, we work on alternatives to maintain continuity of care.

What is the local healthcare's capacity to respond?

The killing of healthcare workers, attacks on facilities and threats to the security of hospitals and medical centres has reduced the healthcare system’s capacity to treat patients. Over the past two years, the killings of paramedical and medical staff and evacuation of several health centres and hospitals have diminished people’s access to healthcare. As of 12 March, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), five hospitals were forced to close in addition to 45 primary healthcare centres, and 11 emergency medical services vehicles were damaged. Eighteen healthcare workers were killed, and 45 wounded, according to the WHO.

The intensification of the conflict in Lebanon is already affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of people that have been forced to flee their homes since last year, with a surge of internally displaced people who have been gathering in overcrowded shelter since early March. This scale of displacement in Lebanon largely surpasses the country’s ability to house the displaced, exacerbating further the humanitarian needs in the country.

Lebanon’s healthcare system, as with other sectors of the country, has been weighed down by the ongoing economic crisis. Local health centers and hospitals that are already at capacity could face increasing pressure if they contend with growing medical needs or a sudden influx of patients.

Do you think the authorities’ response is sufficient? Any comments on the Ministry of Health’s emergency response plan?

We are closely collaborating and coordinating with the Lebanese Ministry of Health and remain in regular contact with the authorities and other humanitarian organisations. The scale of the needs requires urgent and comprehensive action. Simultaneously, our teams are constantly assessing and monitoring health related developments and needs, with more than 800,000 people displaced in just few days.

It’s important to recognise that this escalation is coming on top of nearly two years of conflict and a prolonged strain on Lebanon’s services and resources, with funding cuts of the global humanitarian aid that resulted in a limitation of emergency contingency stocks. The scale and speed of displacement are stretching systems that were already under pressure. Rapid support—especially for shelter, water, and healthcare—is urgently needed.

The current escalation comes at a time when the United Nation’s 2026 Lebanon Response Plan is severely underfunded and contingency stocks remain critically low, following months of relentless Israeli bombing. MSF calls for the immediate mobilisation of emergency aid to rapidly scale up assistance for displaced people and the communities hosting them.

What do you have to say on the recent Israeli attacks on medical facilities and health workers in Lebanon?

We are very concerned by the reports of high numbers of civilians killed and wounded in the recent Israeli attacks, including healthcare workers. As of 12 March, and according to the WHO, five hospitals were forced to close in addition to 45 primary healthcare centres and 11 emergency medical services vehicles were damaged. 18 healthcare workers were killed, with 45 wounded, still according to the World Health Organization.

As always, our message remains clear: medical staff, medical facilities and patients must be always protected. In light of the already high number of civilians killed and wounded, including children, women and healthcare workers in Lebanon over the past two weeks, we remind all parties that civilians, civilian infrastructure and medical facilities must be always protected.

How does this escalation compare to that of 2024?

Compared to 2024, we’re seeing a similar pattern of intense bombings and mass displacement. This escalation brings broad evacuation orders by Israeli forces displacing more than 800,000 people. The current context is potentially more fragile: Lebanon’s public services and health system are entering this escalation depleted after nearly two years of cumulative conflict impact, repeated shocks, and protracted displacement.

This time, more people are remaining in affected areas or returning despite ongoing strikes and evacuation orders, often because shelters are full, routes are unsafe, they have no means to move again, or they simply have nowhere else to go—which likely contributes to higher civilian exposure and rising casualties. At the same time, families are carrying the financial and psychological toll of repeated displacement: the loss of homes and livelihoods, mounting debt, exhaustion, and trauma, all making it harder to cope and access care.

Has MSF seen or treated wounds from White Phosphorus in Lebanon?

We are extremely concerned about reports of the use of white phosphorous, a prohibited weapon, in residential areas and are actively cross-checking with our medical staff to assess whether symptoms of this have been witnessed. As we have not yet begun any direct hospital activities, we haven't seen any cases so far.

Are the casualties reported civilians or combatants?

Casualties are recorded by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. We do not have any data beyond what is tracked. However, it is worth noting that 20 per cent of reported casualties in the first week alone were children under 18, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.

Are you treating war-wounded civilians? What type of injuries have you witnessed?

Our current intervention revolves around ensuring humanitarian assistance access to primary healthcare for internally displaced people, alongside providing essential mental health support. As such, we haven't conducted surgical interventions or treated war casualties first hand. We are assessing the needs for trauma response in hospitals with local authorities and local partners.

Would MSF provide medical treatment to a Hezbollah fighter if the situation in Lebanon were to escalate?

In Lebanon as anywhere else in the world, our teams provide medical care to all individuals in need, solely on the basis of medical criteria. We do not discriminate when treating a patient; we ensure that anyone who needs medical assistance receives it, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, religion, or political beliefs.

Our work is guided by medical ethics, and our primary mission is to deliver impartial medical care to those in need, and we uphold this commitment indiscriminately in all our operations.