Lebanon: How MSF is responding amid latest escalation
10 October 2024
Following widescale Israeli airstrikes of multiple areas in Lebanon, Médecins Sans Frontières teams are working around the clock to respond to escalating humanitarian needs.
Our teams are providing medical and mental health consultations, including at mobile clinics in locations where displaced people have taken shelter. They have donated essential items including mattresses, blankets, and hygiene kits to people who have been forced to flee their homes. We are actively assessing the needs to scale up support.
Since 23 September, some of our staff in south Lebanon, Beirut and other parts of the country have fled their homes, spending hours in traffic as they seek refuge in safer locations. In south Lebanon and Baalbek-Hermel – areas that have experienced heavy aerial strikes – MSF staff reported bombardments close to their homes. Many of our staff have sheltered in their homes as Israeli warplanes continued to fly overhead and throughout the night.
“On Monday morning at 6:30am, we woke up to hysterical strikes against mountains and valleys, shelling villages from Baalbeck to Hermel. Children woke up frightened, and people went outside,” says Maram, a Health Promotion Supervisor with MSF in Lebanon.
“All we could hear was the sound of ambulance sirens. We saw smoke with each strike, and the bombardment was very close to houses. My work colleagues left their homes in Hermel, Al-Ain and Laboueh, and took refuge in schools or uncovered houses out of fear.”
How is MSF responding in Lebanon?
MSF is gravely concerned about Israel’s bombing campaign in Lebanon, much of which is taking place in densely populated urban areas. We call for the immediate de-escalation of hostilities to prevent further suffering, injury, and loss of life.
MSF has deployed a total of 10 mobile medical units (MMU) across Lebanon providing primary care and mental health support to IDPs.
MSF is supporting IDPs, gathered in precarious conditions in shelters, through donations of basic essential items such as mattresses, blanket, hygiene kits, and distributions of food items and drinking water.
MSF is strengthening water and sanitation conditions in shelters through water trucking.
- MSF has donated medical and non-medical supplies to hospitals to cope with the influx of patients and wounded.
- MSF has provided mass casualty management and trauma care trainings to healthcare workers and hospitals located in the frontline.
MSF in Lebanon
We have been working in Lebanon since 1976, when we began our response to the 15-year civil war. Today, we continue to adapt our long-term activities to cover the needs of Lebanese people, as well as refugees and migrants, who often have limited access to medical care.