Over 1.2mn people in Lebanon to face acute hunger due to war: report

BEIRUT: A UN-backed report said on Wednesday that more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon were expected to face acute hunger due to the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The figure was announced in a joint statement by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Food Programme and Lebanon’s agriculture ministry.

Some “1.24 million people – nearly one in four of the population analysed – are expected to face food insecurity” at crisis levels or worse between April and August 2026, they said.

They were referring to analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed group that monitors hunger and malnutrition.

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This marks a “significant deterioration” from before the war erupted in March, “when an estimated 874,000 people, roughly 17 percent of the population, were experiencing acute food insecurity”, the statement said.

“The deterioration is due to conflict, displacement and economic pressures,” it added.

A ceasefire since April 17 has paused six weeks of war between Israel and Hezbollah that has killed more than 2,500 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million, according to the authorities.

Israeli forces are operating in south Lebanon near the border where residents have been warned not to return, and both sides have been trading fire despite the truce.

“Acute food insecurity is likely to deepen without sustained and timely humanitarian and livelihood support,” the statement added.