Beirut:
Intensive Israeli attacks may have forced as many as a million people to flee parts of Lebanon in possibly the worst displacement crisis in the small country’s history, Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Sunday.
Mikati said that “the estimated number is very high and could reach a million” – which would amount to about one-sixth of the Lebanese population.
“It is the largest displacement movement that may have taken place in Lebanon,” he said.
On Friday, Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s powerful leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in a move that many fear threatens to destabilize Lebanon and the wider region.
Since Monday, intense Israeli attacks in the east, south and south of Beirut have killed hundreds of people and forced many to flee their homes.
Earlier this week, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said “more than 200,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon” and more than 50,000 have fled to neighboring Syria.
The intensive attacks come as Israel shifts the focus of its operation from Gaza to Lebanon after nearly a year of cross-border fire with Hezbollah over the war in Gaza, with the group saying it is acting in support of ally Hamas.
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