\n Hundreds of thousands have been displaced in Lebanon as Israel orders swathes of the country to evacuate amid its bombing campaign against Hezbollah in the south. As the humanitarian crisis worsens, local NGOs are doing what they can to help.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Issued on: 14\/03\/2026 – 09:38<\/p>\n
2 min Reading time\n<\/p>\n
In the Geitawi neighbourhood of Beirut<\/a>, around 40 people are preparing huge pots of bulgur and tomatoes.<\/p>\n The premises are a former petrol station, converted by NGO\u00a0Nation Station<\/a>\u00a0into a community kitchen after the Beirut port explosion<\/a> in August 2020.<\/p>\n Its volunteers are cooking for people displaced by the war launched by Israel<\/a> and the United States<\/a> against Iran<\/a> and its allies, including Hezbollah.<\/p>\n “Most people have nowhere to go, the shelters are full, we cannot meet all their needs. Many NGOs have doubled their efforts, as we have, but it is not enough,” says Jos\u00e9phine Abou Abdo, the co-founder of Nation Station.<\/p>\n “The government does not have the means to help. And there are not enough people helping to support us. This is a serious crisis \u2013 I would even say it’s worse than during the last war.”<\/p>\n ‘War with no winners’: Middle East crisis enters a dangerous new phase<\/a><\/p>\n ‘Powerless’ <\/p>\n Hanna Duli\u00e8re,\u00a0a 14-year-old French national, is among the volunteers.\u00a0“In this country, we all need a certain amount of solidarity, otherwise nothing will hold together,” she says.<\/p>\n Another French volunteer,\u00a0Soledad Andr\u00e9-Amra, says helping out gives her a sense of purpose.<\/p>\n “We feel very powerless about what is happening. It is important to be able to do something, even if it is not much,” she says. “There are still a lot of people living on the streets today and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.”<\/p>\n The roughly 2,200 hot meals they are preparing will be\u00a0delivered to 15 schools that are housing people fleeing the conflict.<\/p>\n Refugees, migrants in Lebanon find rare sanctuary from Israeli strikes in Beirut church<\/a><\/p>\n More than 800,000 people<\/a> are currently displaced in Lebanon<\/a>, according to the country’s Disaster Risk Management Unit \u2013\u00a0roughly one in seven of the country’s 5.8 million people. Nearly 126,000 of those displaced are housed in shared shelters.<\/p>\n Israel has placed nearly 1,500 square kilometres of Lebanese territory under evacuation orders, including much of the south of the country and Beirut’s southern suburbs, both Hezbollah<\/a> strongholds.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last week, Lebanon\u2019s Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that if the war didn\u2019t end, a\u00a0humanitarian disaster was looming.\u00a0<\/p>\n “The humanitarian and political consequences of this displacement could be unprecedented,” he said.<\/p>\n This article was adapted from the original version<\/a> in French.<\/p>\n