“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.
Many hospitals remain closed or damaged
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.
After the escalation, MSF launched new activities in the hardest-hit governorates—Nabatieh, South, and Baalbek-Hermel—while maintaining our presence and provision of services in Beirut, Bekaa, and North governorates. In the southern governorates, where available services remain financially out of reach for many returnees, MSF set up mobile clinics to ensure communities’ access to vital medical and mental health services. MSF is also rehabilitating and supporting three primary health care centers to restore provision of services in areas of return.
Occupation and airstrikes remain a heavy burden in Lebanon
MSF teams on the ground continue to witness the human cost of the escalation and the lasting impacts of a war that has not fully abated. Many patients live in fear and uncertainty, and many are unable to begin recovery. Mental health needs are also profound, as children and adults alike experience stress, anxiety and constant fear.
“Wars leave an immense toll on the communities that are directly impacted,” says Tharwat Saraeb, a psychologist with MSF’s mobile clinic in the Nabatieh governorate. “Here, not a day goes by without people re-experiencing the devastation. Drone sounds, continued occupation of lands, and non-stop airstrikes all deepen the suffering of people.”
“My daughter faints at the sound of any strike, even if it’s far away,” says Samira, another patient of MSF’s mobile clinic. “She has a child of her own, and we all tremble with fear—it affects us all deeply."
The road to MSF patient Nawal Fakhreddine's home (left) was reduced to rubble in the war last year. Nawal, right, walks in her family's beloved olive grove. Lebanon 2025 © Maryam Srour/MSF
A shared plight between refugees, migrants, and Lebanese
The war devastated Lebanese families, refugees, and migrants alike. Lebanon is home to more than 1 million Syrian refugees, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, and many migrants who already live in precarious conditions. These communities were excluded from many relief efforts during the escalation, despite facing the same urgent needs for food, shelter and health care.
One year on, refugees’ and migrants’ needs remain neglected. Their access to secondary health care through humanitarian organizations is also at risk: By the end of 2025, the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for Migration will cease covering secondary health care, while UNRWA and UNICEF face unprecedented funding cuts. The severe global funding cuts for humanitarian programs leave enormous needs unmet, create new vulnerabilities, and deepen existing ones.
For people like Abdel Karim and Samira, rebuilding their lives remains an uphill battle. MSF teams remain committed to providing services wherever they’re needed, ensuring that communities are not left without access to vital health care. Yet true recovery will only be possible when people can live free from fear and can access the medical, mental health and essential services they so urgently need to start over.
MSF’s work in Lebanon
MSF currently works in seven governorates across Lebanon. In Beirut, we run two clinics in Bourj Hammoud and Bourj El-Barajneh. In Baalbek-Hermel, we run two clinics in Hermel and Arsal, and three mobile clinics.
In southern Lebanon, we operate three mobile clinics in Nabatieh and support three primary health care centers in South governorate. In Tripoli in the north, we support five primary health care centers, and we run mobile clinics in Bekaa and Akkar.
Between September 23, 2024, and September 1, 2025, MSF teams in Lebanon provided or supported:
- 175,338 medical consultations
- 14,179 individual mental health consultations
- 12,433 group mental health consultations
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