Photo: ReutersEscalating hostilities have forced nearly 700,000 people to flee their homes in Lebanon over the past week, a UN agency said on Monday, as the war between Israel and the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah entered a second week. On Monday, Israeli strikes sent columns of smoke billowing from Beirut's Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs, and over the hilltops of southern Lebanon. "Mass displacement across Lebanon has forced nearly 700,000 people – including around 200,000 children – from their homes, adding to the tens of thousands already uprooted from previous escalations," Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF regional director, said in a statement. Photo: ReutersThe Israeli military announced on Sunday that two of its soldiers had been killed in southern Lebanon, its first fatalities of the conflict. More than 1 million people were forced to flee their homes in Lebanon during a war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2024.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 09, 2026 19:38 UTC