Lebanon’s Civilians Bear Brunt of Expanding War
Beirut/Geneva: Pregnant women displaced by the expanding war in West Asia are being forced to give birth in the open, sometimes by the side of the road, as hospitals shut down and bombardment continues across southern Lebanon and beyond, United Nations agencies said today, highlighting the humanitarian consequences of a conflict that has rapidly widened across the region over the past two weeks.
The crisis has unfolded against the backdrop of the escalating confrontation triggered by Israeli and U.S. strikes inside Iran on February 28 and the subsequent chain of retaliatory attacks involving Iran, its regional allies and Israel. The latest humanitarian assessments from UN agencies illustrate how a conflict that began as a strategic military confrontation has increasingly translated into a civilian catastrophe across parts of the Middle East.
According to the UN population agency United Nations Population Fund, approximately 11,600 pregnant women in Lebanon are currently affected by the violence, with around 4,000 expected to give birth in the next three months. Many have been displaced from their homes and cut off from functioning medical facilities. Anandita Philipose, the agency’s representative in Lebanon, said numerous women have already been forced to deliver babies in unsafe conditions outside medical centres.
The collapse of medical access has been accelerated by damage to healthcare infrastructure and mass evacuation orders. The UN agency reported that at least 55 hospitals and clinics have shut down, either because they lie within areas covered by Israeli evacuation directives or because they have suffered direct damage during airstrikes.
The fighting along the Lebanon–Israel frontier has intensified in recent days, according to the UN peacekeeping mission United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which monitors the volatile boundary known as the Blue Line. Kandice Ardiel, a spokesperson for the mission speaking from Naqoura, said UN observers have recorded daily exchanges of rockets, missiles and drones launched from Lebanese territory into Israel, followed by Israeli artillery barrages, airstrikes and drone attacks.
The escalation reached a particularly intense phase earlier in the week when more than 100 projectiles were fired from Lebanese territory and a similar number were launched in retaliation by Israeli forces, accompanied by several airstrikes within the UN peacekeeping area of operations. Israeli ground units have also made incursions up to seven kilometres into Lebanese territory, according to the mission’s field reports.
Despite a temporary lull in some sectors, UN officials caution that the front remains extremely volatile and could escalate again at any moment. The conflict between Hezbollah fighters and Israel has become one of the principal theatres of the wider regional war.
The humanitarian consequences inside Lebanon are rapidly intensifying. The UN migration agency International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 822,000 people have already been displaced within Lebanon alone, a staggering figure in a country whose population was already struggling with economic crisis before the war erupted.
Migrants form one of the most vulnerable segments of those displaced. According to the agency’s chief of mission in Lebanon, Mathieu Luciano, roughly 200,000 migrant workers live in the country, many employed in agriculture, construction and domestic work. With businesses shut down and communities uprooted, large numbers have been left without income, housing or safe routes home.
Many of these workers originate from countries including Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Sudan and Bangladesh. With transportation networks disrupted and embassies overwhelmed, many migrants now depend on community organisations, churches, humanitarian agencies and diplomatic missions for protection.
The broader regional displacement crisis is also expanding beyond Lebanon. The UN refugee agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, says that more than 4.1 million people have been displaced across Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon and Pakistan since the escalation began, reflecting the wider ripple effects of the conflict.
Inside Iran itself, humanitarian agencies are monitoring population movements following the Israeli-U.S. strikes and subsequent military exchanges. The International Organization for Migration has already begun assisting migrants leaving Iran, although officials say resources remain limited.
UN refugee agency spokesperson Babar Baloch said preliminary figures show around 11,400 Iranians crossing into Türkiye, while more than 24,600 Afghans have returned from Iran to Afghanistan since the escalation began. For now, these crossings remain within typical daily averages, though officials warn the numbers could surge if fighting intensifies further.
Despite the scale of disruption, UN agencies say they have attempted to maintain humanitarian operations by relying on pre-positioned relief supplies stored in regional logistics hubs. Warehouses in locations such as Termiz in Uzbekistan have allowed emergency aid to be transported into affected areas despite airspace closures and supply chain interruptions caused by the war.
The humanitarian emergency unfolding in Lebanon reflects the wider regional crisis triggered by the confrontation between Iran and Israel and the involvement of the United States. Over the past 24 hours alone, the conflict has seen further military escalation, including new missile exchanges across the Gulf and continued fighting along the Israel–Lebanon frontier.
The broader geopolitical stakes remain significant. The war has already disrupted maritime traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which a substantial portion of global oil trade passes. The tensions have begun affecting countries far beyond the battlefield, including India, which has reported casualties among its nationals in the region and faces risks to energy shipments and shipping routes.
For the civilians caught in the conflict zones, however, the geopolitical calculations remain distant realities. In Lebanon’s shattered towns and along its crowded highways, the immediate crisis is far more basic — the struggle to find shelter, food, medicine and safe places to bring new life into the world.
As UN agencies warned this week, without a rapid de-escalation of the fighting, the humanitarian toll across the region could rise dramatically in the weeks ahead.
– global bihari bureau
