Source: Save the Children
Tens of thousands of families in southern Lebanon have lost their livelihoods and many their homes in the past four months after cross-border violence between Lebanon and Israel escalated, destroying 47,000 olive trees as well as other crops during harvesting, Save the Children said.
An increase in cross-border shelling and rocket fire since 7 October has triggered blazes in a key agricultural area of Lebanon that have run wild through olive groves and nearby farming communities.
More than 86,000 people, including about 31,000 children, have been displaced from villages and towns in southern Lebanon as a result, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Many families are leaving their homes with only that they can carry and many are experiencing displacement for a second time, including Lebanese women and children and refugee populations who were living in informal tented settlements in the south of the country.
The olive sector in Lebanon involves more than 110,000 farmers with 12 million trees covering almost one-quarter of the country’s agricultural land. Olive harvesting is a main source of income for many villagers with live output accounting for 7% of agricultural GDP in Lebanon, according to the UN. Fires have also affected citrus and banana farms and pastoral land.
Rami-, 14, was displaced with his family and is staying at a centre for internally displaced people supported by Save the Children. He said:
“I was getting fuel for our house when I heard the Israeli airstrikes. I ran home and only managed to get my father’s medication. He has cancer and it was the only thing I was able to get before we had to flee, at night, to a safer place. I don’t have fri
