Geneva, Oct. 15, (dpa/GNA) – The Israeli army has issued evacuation orders covering more than 25% of Lebanon’s territory as it continues its fight against the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in the neighboring country, the UN said on Tuesday.
“Now we have over 25% of the country under a direct Israeli military evacuation order,” the director of the UN refugee agency UNHCR for the Middle East, Rema Jamous Imseis, said in Geneva.
Imseis detailed the case of two women with a total of nine children who fled from the south of the country after a bomb hit less than 100 metres away from them.
The women walked with their children for 10 hours towards the Syrian border, without food or water, she said.
Around a fifth of Lebanon’s population of 5 million has been displaced amid Israel’s campaign launched in September, Imseis said.
Some 2,200 people have been killed and more than 10,000 injured since Israel ramped up its attacks, she added.
Some 70% of the country’s schools are being used as emergency shelters, she added, and classes have been cancelled.
GNA