About 540,000 people have fled Lebanon to neighboring Syria since fighting escalated between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, according to UN figures released on Tuesday.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that about two-thirds of the refugees from Lebanon were Syrian and about one-third were Lebanese citizens.
According to government figures, around 1.5 million Syrian refugees were living in Lebanon before the recent escalation of conflict with Israel. Most of them came to Lebanon after 2011 because of the civil war in their country.
About 6 million people live in Lebanon.
In addition to the war in the Gaza Strip, Israel is fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah attacks 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 Hezbollah’s fire with counter-attacks, but since September it has launched heavy airstrikes in the country and ground attacks in southern Lebanon.
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