How Israel’s destruction of south Lebanon is making displacement permanent

Beirut, Lebanon – More than six months after Israel intensified its war on Lebanon, a displacement crisis is slowly solidifying.At its highest point in April, more than 1.2 million people were displaced by Israeli attacks on Lebanon.Today, the figure stands at about 330,000, according to estimates by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – but humanitarian workers say the drop should not be interpreted as permanent or even durable.Nadine Mazloum, of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), said displacement patterns remain “highly fluid and often reversible” due to the possibility of renewed attacks.While the “overall number of displaced people has fallen substantially from the peak of more than 1.2 million, that should not be mistaken for a resolution of the crisis”, she added.‘This is our land’Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah have been fighting since October 2023, with varying levels of intensity.On March 2, 2026, Hezbollah responded to continued Israeli attacks on Lebanon for the first time in more than a year, saying it was in retaliation for more than 10,000 violations of a 2024 ceasefire and for the assassination two days earlier of Iranian Supreme Leade...