MSF Launches Emergency Response in Lebanon

Lebanon: Mass Displacement as Bombardment Intensifies

Since Monday, 2 March, tens of thousands of people in Lebanon have fled their homes following relentless Israeli airstrikes across multiple areas. Israel’s intensified airstrikes across Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon are causing deaths, injuries, and widespread displacement. This escalation comes after 15 months of a so-called ceasefire that never translated into real safety for civilians. Israeli attacks and incursions have continued throughout—and are now sharply escalating again. Blanket forced displacement orders, alongside ongoing strikes and incursions, are forcing families to flee repeatedly, often with nowhere safe to go. Many are left stranded in the streets or trapped in their towns.

In response, MSF has launched a nationwide emergency operation. Our teams are on the ground providing care through mobile clinics, distributing essential relief items, and supporting hospitals, shelters, and primary health care services.

Update: Monday April 6

Following the indiscriminate Israeli airstrike in a residential neighborhood in Beirut yesterday, 5 people were killed, including a 15-year-old girl and two Sudanese migrants, while 52 people, including 8 children, were wounded, according to Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health.

Dr. Luna Hammad, MSF Medical Coordinator, who was part of an MSF team at Rafik Hariri Public Hospital, supporting with the emergency: “A man arrived with severe bleeding from his head, panicked, searching for his young child who was also injured. Only after learning his son was safe did he allow doctors to tend to him —then we realized he had lost his ear.”

These are not isolated incidents. Yesterday alone, 39 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Lebanon, bringing the death toll in Lebanon since 2 March to 1,461, according to official sources.

Update: Sunday, April 5

Around 2pm Sunday, Israeli forces struck a densely populated residential area in Beirut, only meters from Rafik Hariri Public Hospital, where MSF is supporting with an ER doctor.

A mass-casualty influx followed: people bleeding, some carried on shoulders. In the first hour, 4 were killed and nearly 40 injured; more casualties are feared as rubble is cleared.

“We are seeing elderly people and adolescents arriving with critical injuries to the head, chest and abdomen, including shrapnel wounds,” says Dr. Luna Hammad, MSF Medical Coordinator, from the ER at Rafik Hariri Public Hospital. “When strikes hit crowded residential areas without warning, the consequences are severe: both in human casualties and in hospitals’ capacity to respond.”

MSF condemns this attack on civilians in a highly populated area and calls for the protection of civilians and health facilities. Strikes this close to a hospital spread fear and can stop people from seeking lifesaving care. MSF is donating a mass-casualty kit and will continue supporting hospitals with medical expertise and essential medical and non-medical supplies. Civilians cannot be collateral damage.

Update: March 19th

As the unfolding conflict displaces thousands of families across the country, destroying the homes, systems and infrastructure people's daily lives depend on, we hear from some of those affected. 

Update: March 18th

In the Chouf district near southern Lebanon, where thousands of families have sought refuge, MSF has set up emergency mobile-clinic activities and is supporting shelters to help address urgent health and basic needs. Many of the families we meet there—especially mothers and children—have been displaced time and time again, carrying exhaustion and fear on top of immediate medical needs.

MSF teams are also present in Azarieh—abandoned office buildings in downtown Beirut that have once again become a collective shelter. Here, many people were already struggling financially before the escalation, and displacement has pushed them further into hardship. Families describe overcrowded, ill-equipped shelter conditions, the uncertainty of returning to areas still under fire, and the impact of evacuated hospitals—especially for people who need regular treatment, chronic disease medication, or specialised care.
In Azarieh, our mobile teams provide medical consultations and sexual and reproductive health services, alongside mental health support and dedicated activities for children. Our logistics teams have distributed hygiene kits, mattresses, and blankets, and continue to deliver water trucking and drinking water on a near-daily basis.

The escalation is also affecting MSF staff directly, many of whom have been displaced themselves. They are showing up to provide care and assistance while coping with the same insecurity.  

Across the country, MSF is providing similar emergency assistance in informal gathering sites, collective shelters, and primary healthcare centers, as needs continue to grow.

Update: March 16th

Israel’s intensified airstrikes across multiple areas of Lebanon are causing deaths, injuries, and widespread displacement. This latest escalation comes 15 months into a ceasefire that never brought true safety for civilians—with Israeli attacks and incursions that have persisted and are now sharply escalating once again. Blanket “evacuation orders” and ongoing strikes are forcing families to flee repeatedly, often with nowhere safe to go, and leaving many stranded in streets or trapped in their towns.

These displaced people urgently need safe shelter, water, essential relief items, and access to healthcare – including emergency care and psychosocial support. Shelters are overwhelmed and ill-equipped to host the displaced communities, with most lacking essential services such as water, sanitation, food, and kitchens, as they are typically re purposed buildings not intended for accommodation.

While the escalation is affecting a vast portion of the country’s population, minority groups such as refugees, migrant workers and other non-Lebanese are at risk of facing even higher discrimination and exclusion from the humanitarian response, further reducing their access to healthcare and humanitarian assistance. Moreover, people with specific vulnerabilities, such as the elderly and people living with disabilities and chronic illnesses face difficulties accessing medication, protection risks including SGBV are a major concern in crowded shelters, especially for women and girls.

In response to this deepening crisis, MSF has launched a nationwide emergency response, while adapting rapidly to maintain continuity of care where possible and support health facilities receiving casualties:

• As of 13 March, we have 10 mobile clinics providing primary healthcare, NCD medications, sexual and reproductive health services, and mental health support across the country. 
• Our teams are also distributing essential relief items like hygiene kits, blankets, and drinking water. 
• Our teams started hospital and PHCC support, donating fuel and medical supplies, as well as food parcels for hospital staff in conflict-affected areas. 
• We are also in touch with civil defense groups to donate first responder kits including body bags. 
• Finally, our mental health teams are launching mental health helplines to support distressed individuals in remote/hard-to-access areas.

March 10th 2026

Families are fleeing with almost nothing.

MSF has launched a nationwide emergency response—distributing blankets, mattresses, and hygiene kits, and trucking water to overcrowded shelters in Beirut, Barja, and different parts of the country.

More than 100,000 people have been internally displaced due to Israel’s massive bombardment campaign and evacuation orders and are taking refuge in collective shelters. Thousands more remain trapped in their homes or stranded in streets and public spaces, urgently needing assistance.

To respond, MSF has deployed a mobile clinic in Saida, Barja, and Beirut and is preparing to launch additional mobile clinics across several governorates to reach people where care is most needed.

Hear a message from Francesca Quinto, MSF Desk Manager in Amman covering several operational countries in the Middle East below.

March 9th 2026

Since 4 March, an MSF mobile clinic has been providing medical consultations and psychological first aid in Saida, southern Lebanon, where some shelters have exceeded capacity. 

We have also started providing shelters in Beirut with clean water and conducting assessments in Beirut, Rashaya and other areas to scale up mobile clinics and supplies. 

We are in touch with the relevant authorities to provide additional support where needed.

March 4th 2026

In Lebanon, thousands have been displaced. “The escalation in conflict comes after 15 months of a “ceasefire agreement” that never brought real safety for people in Lebanon,” says MSF Program Manager Francesca Quinto. “The latest strikes and evacuation orders to all of Beirut’s southern suburbs and almost all of the south of the country are now forcing even more people to flee. And there is nowhere safe to go.”

For many people in southern Lebanon and other areas of the country, evacuation orders mean reliving the trauma of displacement all over again. “Families who were slowly beginning to recover from previous fighting are being told to leave their homes. Some have been stranded on the roads with children, elderly relatives, and sick family members, facing extremely harsh conditions,” continues Quinto.

"This war began 15 months ago, and until today, it hasn't stopped"

Listen to audio testimony from Sana Kawtharani, Community health educator in Nabatieh, South Lebanon below.

Tuesday, March 3rd

Listen below to a voice note from our field communications officer, Maryam Srour, recorded as she was fleeing her home in the Beirut suburbs amid the escalation of Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon.