Escalating Middle East Crisis: Up to 1 Million at Risk of Displacement in Lebanon as Violence Intensifies

March 04, 2026

Beirut – Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon have fled their homes as violence surges across the country, with many families abandoning everything for the second time in under two years.  

New Mercy Corps analysis this week warns that between 300,000 and 1 million people could be forced to flee, worsening a fragile humanitarian situation amidst a sharp global reduction in aid funding. 

Mass displacement is already overwhelming collective shelters and stretching relatives who have opened their doors to those with nowhere else to go. Many of those now fleeing had not yet recovered from the 2023-2024 conflict. 

Mercy Corps is partnering with a local organization in southern Lebanon to provide 39,000 hot meals over the coming next month. For families who fled with little more than the clothes they were wearing, it is often the first proper meal they have had in days.  

Elie Yaacoub, Team Leader for Mercy Corps’ Crisis Analysis Unit in Lebanon, says: 

“Lebanon is on the brink of another humanitarian emergency of staggering scale. Families are fleeing in large numbers by the hour. Shelters are nearly full. Essential services are strained, and key infrastructure is buckling.  

“We anticipate significant displacement and humanitarian needs not just in Lebanon, but across the region at a time when global aid budgets are being cut. Without new funding and access for aid groups to support innocent civilians caught in the crossfire, the suffering will spiral further.” 

Mercy Corps urges all parties, and those with influence over them, to urgently pursue de-escalation. Without it, humanitarian needs will outpace what any response can absorb. 

 

Mercy Corps has been working in Lebanon since 1993, to promote peace, stability, and growth by addressing root causes of conflict and poverty.   

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