6.4. Impact on civilian population and infrastructure

6.4. Impact on civilian population and infrastructure

As of September 2024, Israeli attacks on Lebanon resulted in fatalities, displacement, and damage to infrastructure,464 while also eroding rule of law, weakening government institutions, including municipalities, and deepening political divisions.465 This has constrained the state’s ability to manage overlapping crises.466

According to the UN Security Council report of October 2024 and March 2025, since the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon on 8 October 2023 and 13 February 2025, 4 244 people have been killed, including 341 children467 (with an average of over three children per day killed between October and November 2024468) and 962 women, and 17 506 injured.469

By September 2024, Israeli attacks had raised multidimensional poverty rates to 94 % in the Governorate of Al Nabatieh and 87 % in the Governorate of South Lebanon, damaged or demolished 50 210 residential units, destroyed around 121 hectares of farmland and 47 000 trees, much of them olive groves, and severely disrupted local livelihoods and services, deepening food insecurity and economic collapse across southern Lebanon, according to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA).470 For more information, see section 2.3 Socio-economic situation. On 24 September 2024, at least 558 people, including 50 children and 94 women, were killed and 1 835 wounded in Israel’s air raids that devastated swathes of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and the southern suburbs of Beirut.471 Hospitals, medical centres, and ambulances were also damaged.472 On 29 September 2024, UN human rights experts warned that Israel’s escalating bombardment of densely populated areas, without adequate evacuation measures, could amount to ‘domicide’ – i.e. mass destruction of homes.473 By 24 October 2024, Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon damaged or destroyed over 3 600 buildings in just two weeks, which is more than in a year of prior conflict, killing at least 2 350 people, injuring over 10 000, and displacing up to 1.3 million with attacks expanding beyond the southern border to the Bekaa Valley and Beirut.474 Between 1 October 2024 and 26 January 2025, more than 10 000 civilian structures were deliberately destroyed or severely damaged in at least 24 municipalities of southern Lebanon, much of it after the 27 November 2024 ceasefire.475

Following the ceasefire, Israeli attacks destroyed over 90 000 housing units, caused extensive infrastructure damage, and left large areas contaminated with explosive ordnances, preventing returns and leaving nearly 99 000 people displaced as of 19 February 2025.476 By February 2025, Israeli attacks had also devastated water, electricity, telecommunications, and health services in southern Lebanon, effectively preventing tens of thousands of displaced residents from returning home, even where houses remain standing.477 As of 15 April 2025, at least 71 civilians, including 14 women and 9 children, had been killed since the ceasefire, while more than 92 000 people remained displaced.478 By 9 September 2025, at least 150 000 people in southern Lebanon still lacked access to running water after Israeli attacks destroyed key water, sanitation, and hygiene infrastructure, leaving more than 30 villages cut off, causing an estimated USD 171 million in losses, with 82 % of farmers unable to irrigate and 90 % of services disrupted within five kilometres of the border.479