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GENEVA — UN humanitarian officials called on Tuesday for urgent action to stop the escalating conflict in Lebanon from spiralling into a similar scene of devastation as seen in Gaza.

"We need to do everything we can to stop that from happening," said Matthew Hollingworth, Lebanon country director for the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP).

Speaking from Beirut, he told a press briefing in Geneva that he spent the first half of the year coordinating WFP's operations in Gaza before taking the helm of its Lebanon office, and was deeply concerned by the similarities.

"It is in my mind from the time I wake until the time I sleep, that we could go into the same sort of spiral of doom... We shouldn't allow that to happen," he said. 

Israel's war in Gaza, launched after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel, has killed more than 41,900 people, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. The UN has said the figures are reliable.

The October 7 attack left 1,206 dead, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures, which includes hostages killed in captivity.

The resulting conflict has spilled into Lebanon, with intensifying airstrikes and Israeli troops battling Hizbollah militants on the ground.

Israel's bombardment of Lebanon has killed more than 1,100 people and displaced upwards of a million in less than two weeks.

Same patterns

Hollingworth said many people were fleeing because they "have watched over the last year as the war in Gaza has continued and neighbourhoods have been decimated and pounded, and that is deep in their gut, in their hearts, in their minds".

James Elder, spokesman for the UN children's agency UNICEF, warned that "the commonalities are unfortunately absolutely there to be seen, whether it is displacement on the ground, impact upon children or language being used ... [to] soften the realities on the ground".

"We are seeing the same patterns that we saw in Gaza," added Jeremy Laurence of the UN rights office.

"The devastation is beyond belief for all people in Lebanon as it is in Gaza. We can't let this happen again."

Significant needs

Humanitarians are working to address the soaring needs, but Hollingworth insisted that what was needed was to "de-escalate".

While WFP is currently able to reach around 150,000 people a day, they "need to be reaching, at this point, almost a million people per day", he said.

At the same time, he highlighted that 1,900 hectares of agricultural land had been burned in southern Lebanon over the past year, mainly in the past couple of weeks, while 12,000 hectares of productive farmland had been abandoned. 

"We have very significant needs moving forward," Hollingworth said, lamenting that the WFP was facing a $115 million funding gap to cover the towering needs over the next three months.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) meanwhile said it had registered 16 attacks on health care in Lebanon since mid-September, leaving 65 healthcare workers dead and 40 injured.

At the same time five of the country's hospitals were now non-functional and four were only partially functional, Ian Clarke, WHO's deputy incident manager in the country, told reporters, speaking via video link from Beirut.

Nearly 100 primary health care facilities had also been forced to close, he said, warning that with limited access to care, "we are facing a situation where there is a much higher risk of disease outbreaks".

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel's bombardment of Hizbollah's south Beirut stronghold has forced tens of thousands to flee to the city centre, but many in sectarian Lebanon view the newcomers with suspicion, worried they too might become targets.

For weeks, Israeli strikes have widened in pursuit of Hizbollah members, leading many Lebanese to shun civilians from the same religious community as the Iran-backed group.

"Our neighbours found out we were housing people from Dahiyeh [Beirut's southern suburbs] and they panicked and started asking questions," said 30-year-old Christina, asking to be identified by only one name.

She took in displaced people but soon asked them to leave after neighbours, concerned the newcomers might be Hizbollah fighters, bombarded her with messages.

Hizbollah, the only side to retain its arsenal after the 1975-90 civil war, has strong support within Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community.

But Lebanon remains split over the group's decision to open a front against Israel in solidarity with Gaza and drag the country into war.

Lebanon's power-sharing system divides authority among 18 religious sects, with Shiites, Sunnis and Christians maintaining a fragile balance.

Many are still haunted by the civil war, which saw families displaced and homes seized, with the latest Israel-Hizbollah war reviving distrust and sectarianism in the divided country.

"There are growing tensions and suspicions towards displaced people because they are from the same religious group as Hizbollah," Christina said.

"Some people are scared that one of their family members might be a target and they don't want to risk" it, she told AFP.

'Bearded men' 

After nearly a year of cross-border clashes, Israel intensified its bombing campaign on September 23, killing more than 1,110 people, according to an AFP tally of official figures.

More than one million people, about a sixth of Lebanon's population, have been displaced, many flocking to Beirut which is now overwhelmed.

The influx has strained services in the crisis-hit country, with traffic congestion, disruptions to daily life and garbage piling up on the streets.

According to the education ministry, 973 public schools around the country have become makeshift shelters, with 773 of them unable to welcome any more displaced.

Panic gripped Souheir, a 58-year-old homemaker, after a displaced Shiite family moved into her building.

The women wore chadors, a full-body robe that is an unfamiliar sight in central Beirut.

"We've been seeing more women in chadors, bearded men and young men in black -- a sight we're not used to seeing," she added.

Souheir admitted she was not immune to the general paranoia.

When she went for coffee at a friend's, she saw bearded men on the balcony -- displaced relatives who sought refuge there.

She cut her visit short because she worried they could be Hizbollah members.

"People are looking at each other with suspicion on the streets," she said. "They're scared of each other."

Tensions are also high outside Beirut, where Israeli strikes have hit displaced people beyond Hizbollah's strongholds, including in the Druze village of Baadaran.

"People used to rent out houses to anyone at first, but now they're being extra-cautious," said Emad, 68, who lives in a Druze village about an hour away from Baadaran.

Elie, 30, who asked to be identified only by his first name, said no one in his Christian village had rented out to the displaced, who mostly live in shelters nearby.

"People are scared because we can't know if there are Hizbollah members among" them, he said.

"They also fear that the displaced could stay in the apartments permanently or semi-permanently since many of their houses were destroyed."

Civil war memories 

Incidents of displaced people breaking into empty buildings in search of a place to sleep have revived memories of the civil war, when more than 150,000 people were killed and militias seized homes.

Last week, police said "a very small number" of displaced people broke into private properties and that they were "working to remove them".

Businessman Riad, 60, said his sister-in-law had been house-sitting their central Beirut apartment after repeated enquiries about rentals.

"We experienced this in the '70s and '80s. Even if you asked an acquaintance to live in your house," armed groups would seize the apartment anyway and give it to displaced families from their own community, he said.

"It took some people a decade before regaining their house... This is why people are panicking," he added.

"It happened once and it will happen again."