“I came back to repair the damage to my house,” says Abdel Karim, his words nearly drowned out by the hum of an Israeli drone overhead. “But without safety and the ability to afford basic things like medicines, how can anyone really start over?”
One year has passed since Israel escalated its war in Lebanon, yet the humanitarian crisis is far from over. Despite the ceasefire agreement made in November 2024, Israeli attacks remain an almost daily reality, hindering people’s ability to recover and restricting their access to care. Israeli forces are still occupying several points along Lebanon’s southern border, leaving more than 82,000 displaced while preventing their return.
Abdel Karim returned to his town in the Bint Jbeil district of Nabatiyeh governorate—one of the hardest hit areas—where he now receives his chronic disease medications from a mobile clinic operated by Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Thousands of families across Lebanon struggle to access health care as they attempt to rebuild their lives amid nightmares of displacement, loss, and uncertainty.
In southern Lebanon, war has devastated infrastructure, including health care facilities. At the height of the escalation, eight hospitals, most in the south were evacuated, while 21 hospitals (around 13 percent of the country’s total) were damaged, forced to close, or had to drastically reduce services. Another 133 primary health care facilities also shut their doors. Nabatieh alone lost 40 percent of its hospital capacity. Today, many damaged facilities remain closed, and many need rehabilitation.
