Lebanon facing full-scale health, protection crisis: UNFPA

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned on Tuesday that Lebanon is facing a “full-scale protection and health crisis” as escalating Israeli attacks continue to devastate civilian areas.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Anandita Philipose said: “This is no longer just a humanitarian emergency. It is a full-scale protection and health crisis, and women and girls are paying the highest price.”

She described intense strikes, including more than 100 bombs dropped in under 10 minutes on April 8, hitting residential and commercial neighborhoods “without warning” and causing “complete devastation.”

On Wednesday alone, 99 women and 31 children were killed across Lebanon, she said, adding that “grief, fear and exhaustion hang heavy in the air.”

Philipose warned that an estimated 13,500 displaced pregnant women need urgent maternal and reproductive health care, including 1,700 who are still in southern Lebanon, “which is under constant attack.”

She stressed that 620,000 displaced women and girls are also at risk of gender-based violence, accounting for more than half of displaced people in shelters.

“The lives of thousands of women and girls in Lebanon depend on urgent collective action, and they depend on it now,” she said, reiterating UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ call for all parties to immediately stop hostilities and respect international humanitarian law at all times.

The representative noted that UNFPA’s initial flash appeal of $12 million remains only 16% funded, warning that “every day without adequate support means more women giving birth without skilled assistance, more survivors of violence left unprotected, and more preventable deaths.”