BY THE NUMBERSNearly one in five people in
Lebanon have been forced from their homes as
Israel launches new ‘ground operations’.(Al Jazeera)Published On 17 Mar 2026The Israeli military has launched new waves of air raids across southern
Lebanon after announcing “limited and targeted ground operations” on Monday against
Hezbollah positions.
Israel has intensified its military operations throughout
Lebanon, creating a new front in the expanding regional conflict.On March 2,
Hezbollah launched a barrage of rockets and drones at
Israel for the first time in about a year, in response to the assassination of
Iran’s Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in
Tehran. On the other hand,
Israel continued near-daily attacks on
Lebanon, violating the November 2024 ceasefire.Between March 2 and March 16, Israeli attacks have killed at least 886 people – including 67 women, 111 children, and 38 health workers – and wounded 2,141, according to
Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.More than a million Lebanese have been displaced from their homes, with
Israel-katz" class="entity-link entity-person" data-entity-id="45608" data-entity-type="person">Israeli Defence Minister
Israel Katz on Monday saying he would not allow the return of people to the country’s south until the safety of Israelis is guaranteed.Which areas has
Israel attacked?Data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), an independent monitor, has recorded at least 394 Israeli attacks on
Lebanon.The attacks have mostly been concentrated in southern
Lebanon and the southern suburbs of
Beirut. There have also been Israeli attacks in the Bekaa Valley and Baalbek in eastern
Lebanon.In the capital,
Beirut, home to roughly half of
Lebanon’s 5.9 million population, Israeli attacks have targeted several areas in Dahiyeh, a cluster of neighbourhoods in the southern suburbs that once housed nearly one million people, most of whom have now been forcibly displaced.Israeli warplanes have targeted several parts of the city, including Haret Hreik, the Bashoura neighbourhood in the heart of
Beirut, and Ramlet al-Baida along the seaside, where displaced families were seeking respite from relentless bombing.The human toll of Israeli attacks on LebanonSince October 7, 2023, Israeli attacks in
Lebanon have killed at least 5,282 people, according to the latest figures from the Lebanese Health Ministry and historical data compiled by ACLED.The cross-border fighting between
Israel and
Hezbollah began a day after
Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups attacked southern
Israel on October 7, 2023, and
Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.
Hezbollah, which was established in response to the Israeli invasion of
Lebanon in 1982, fired rockets at
Israel in solidarity with Palestinians.Yemen’s Houthi group also attacked ships in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade in solidarity with the Palestinians. Houthis and
Hezbollah are part of
Iran’s “axis of resistance”.
Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, and the enclave of 2.3 million people has been turned into rubble.
Israel has killed more than 800 Palestinians since the latest ceasefire brokered by the United States in October 2025.
Israel and
Hezbollah signed a ceasefire deal on November 26, 2024, after nearly two months of fighting and Israeli incursion in southern
Lebanon. But
Israel refused to pull out its troops and continued attacks in violation of the deal.More than one million displacedOn March 12, the Israeli army expanded its forced displacement orders for residents of southern
Lebanon – from the Litani River to north of the Zahrani River, about 40km (25 miles) north of the Israeli border.According to the Norwegian Refugee Council,
Israel’s sweeping evacuation orders now cover more than 1,470sq km (568sq miles), or about 14 percent of the country’s territory.The map below shows more than 100 towns and villages across the country that are under forced evacuation orders from the Israeli military.Nearly one in five people in
Lebanon, or 18 percent of the population, has been displaced over the past two weeks.According to
Lebanon’s Disaster Risk Management Unit, the total number of registered displaced people has now reached 1,049,328, and the number of displaced people residing in collective shelters is 132,742.The pace of displacement has outstripped the country’s shelter capacity. Many families have been unable to secure accommodation and are spending nights in streets, vehicles, or public spaces as collective shelters fill up. For many of them, this is not the first time.Between October 2023 and November 2024, amid cross-border fighting between
Hezbollah and
Israel, hundreds of thousands of residents of southern
Lebanon’s border villages bore the brunt of the violence.At its peak, 899,725 people were forcefully displaced by Israeli forces. Most of them had returned by last October, only to be forced to flee again.Israeli attacks during these 14 months caused widespread destruction to homes and infrastructure. The World Bank estimated damage to residential buildings alone at approximately $2.8bn. About 99,000 homes were damaged or destroyed, leaving many families unable to return even after the ceasefire.