“There were two strikes and a huge crater was created in the no-man’s land between the Syrian and the Lebanese side. It’s very hard for vehicles still to go through this road,” said Rula Amin, Senior Communications Advisor for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, for the Middle East and North Africa.

Speaking from Amman, Ms. Amin said that people at the Masnaa crossing were so “desperate to flee Lebanon that they walked actually through that destroyed road”.

Hundreds of thousands of people have crossed into Syria via this route in the past 10 days, according to the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Escape routes

“The conflict is intensifying,” said Mathieu Luciano, IOM Head of Office in Lebanon. Speaking from Beirut, he said that between 21 September and 3 October, approximately 235,000 people had crossed into Syria overland, including 82,000 Lebanese and 152,000 Syrians.

Citing the Lebanese authorities, Mr. Luciano added that over the same period, 50,000 mainly Lebanese and 10,000 Syrians had flown out of Beirut airport and around 1,000 had fled by sea.

Around one million people are estimated to have been displaced in Lebanon since last October, amid intensifying exchanges of fire either side of the UN-patrolled Blue Line the separates Lebanon and Israel, following the outbreak of war in Gaza.

IOM data indicates that as of 2 October, 400,000 were displaced in the last two weeks alone, amid ongoing Israeli military operations in Lebanon, including ground incursions in the south.

Migrant worker plight

“Of these, more than 165,000 are living in 800 collective shelters across the country. These are schools, that the Government has urgently opened,” said IOM’s Mr. Luciano. “Of course, the numbers continue to rise, as heavy shelling continues to the south in the Beqaa [Valley], in Beirut and other regions.”

Humanitarians said that there was particular concern for the plight of Lebanon’s 180,000 migrant workers – many of whom are female domestic staff – who have been left destitute by the mass displacement.

“We are receiving increasing reports of migrant domestic workers being abandoned by their Lebanese employers; either left on the streets or in the homes as their employers flee…They come from Ethiopia, from Kenya, from Sri Lanka, Sudan, Bangladesh and the Philippines. And they too have been deeply affected by the violence in the country.”

According to the Lebanese health authorities, Israeli ground and air strikes across Lebanon including southern Beirut killed 37 people in the last 24 hours, with another 151 wounded.

Massive health needs

UN humanitarians and partners have spent months bolstering Lebanon’s health capacity for a massive influx of injured people. “This is already happening” in the country’s medical facilities, IOM’s Mr. Luciano told journalists in Geneva, as news broke that a first humanitarian cargo plane had touched down in Beirut with enough medical supplies to treat tens of thousands of injured patients.

“Let’s be very clear that if the situation continues to spread, we will all be facing major challenges in the way we respond,” he added.

Welcoming news of the humanitarian flight’s arrival in Beirut, head of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that further flights were scheduled “carrying more trauma supplies, as well as mental health and cholera supplies”.

Syria returnees’ misery

For those crossing into Syria, UNHCR said that they faced the likelihood of returning to damaged homes with little access to basic services.

“What we’re seeing today is that with the risks these refugees are facing in Lebanon due to the bombings – lack of adequate shelters, lack of access to services access – is making refugees make a very, very difficult choice, so it’s either stay in Lebanon with that growing risk…or taking the decision to go back and cross the border to Syria with all the other risks in mind,” said UNHCR’s Ms. Amin.

Since October 2023, the UN refugee agency has distributed more than 223,000 items for individuals in need and cash assistance to 70,000.

The response also includes carrying out repairs or support for collective shelters, with emergency medical care provided in a network of 42 hospitals across Lebanon.

“As the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate, UNHCR is working to reinforce its supplies of much needed relief items to meet the increasing needs and to prepare for any possible further escalations and displacement,” Ms. Amin continued.