Israel’s campaign in Lebanon a 'humanitarian catastrophe,' UN refugee chief warns

[0:00] AMNA NAWAZ- And now to Lebanon, where the toll of the wider war has been severe. [0:04] More than one million Lebanese are displaced. [0:07] Israel has invaded the country's south again and is demanding people vacate more land. [0:12] The United Nations' top refugee official is there on a mission to survey the crisis, [0:17] and he sat down earlier today with special correspondent Simona Fultin. [0:20] SIMONA FULTINE. [0:21] DR. [0:22] BARHAM SALEH, Thank you very much for speaking to the NewsHour. [0:23] SIMONA FULTINE, Thank you. [0:24] AMNA NAWAZ- Israeli bombardment on Lebanon has displaced more than a million people. [0:28] That's around a fifth of the population. [0:29] What has been the humanitarian impact? [0:31] DR. [0:33] BARHAM SALEH, It's undoubtedly very profound. [0:35] This is truly a rapidly deepening humanitarian crisis. [0:41] Imagine the impact that this is causing to the entire society, to the entire country. [0:47] I've visited a number of places, including shelters, and these are heart-wrenching scenes, [0:54] the stories that you are told, people leaving everything behind, literally in a matter of [0:59] minutes walking miles on foot to get to safety areas and so on. [1:05] This is truly a humanitarian catastrophe by all standards. [1:10] And remember, Lebanon has been a host of refugees for so long. [1:16] Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have taken residence in this country for more than [1:21] a decade, not to mention refugees from other places in the Middle East. [1:26] For Lebanon to be impacted this way, time and again, to be fair, is really very sad, very [1:33] painful. [1:34] AMNA NAWAZ- During our reporting, we've seen people sleep in their cars, sleep under tents. [1:38] The schools that have been turned into displacement shelters are at capacity. [1:42] What are some of the bottlenecks that the Lebanese government and the international community are facing? [1:45] DR. [1:46] BARHAM SALEH, To be fair, the government is doing a lot. [1:47] The government is extremely challenging and it is operating in a very difficult political [1:52] as well as economic condition. [1:53] But to be fair, this government is trying hard. [1:56] I think it's incumbent upon us in the international community to help the government of Lebanon, [2:00] to help the state of Lebanon. [2:02] But no amount of humanitarian assistance can really deal with the scale, the scope of this [2:08] crisis. [2:09] Look, nothing can replace losing your home. [2:13] Many of these people have already seen their homes destroyed. [2:18] And even the prospects of the returns to their communities are somewhat in doubt. [2:21] AMNA NAWAZ- The Lebanese government has just issued fresh statistics saying that more [2:25] than 37,000 housing units have been destroyed, many of them in Lebanon's south. [2:30] This means that even when the fighting stops, many families won't have a place to return to. [2:35] DR. [2:36] BARHAM SALEH, This is a very serious problem. [2:37] Many of these homes have been destroyed in the south. [2:40] So these displaced people, at the end of the day, they need to go back to their homes. [2:44] And the homes are already destroyed. [2:45] This is going to cause Lebanon, cause the people of Lebanon, not to mention the victims [2:50] themselves, a huge, huge problem. [2:52] AMNA NAWAZ- More than 2,000 people have now been killed by Israeli bombardment. [2:56] More than 300 on April 8th alone in what is now known as Black Wednesday. [3:01] Roughly a third of that were women, children, and the elderly. [3:04] Israel says it's targeting Hezbollah. [3:06] You have visited some of these strike locations. [3:08] Was there anything to suggest that these buildings that were being hit were military objects? [3:13] DR. [3:14] BARHAM SALEH, No doubt many of the casualties are civilians, undeniable, so that the evidence [3:19] speaks for itself in the sense of the word, whether Hezbollah's were there or not. [3:24] At the end of the day, attacking civilians, whether in Lebanon in the way that we've seen, [3:29] in northern Israel that we have seen, these are all acts that are unacceptable and should [3:34] not be happening. [3:35] Targeting civilians and targeting civilian infrastructure is something that is totally unacceptable. [3:41] This violence, this conflict, this war really needs to be brought to an end. [3:45] And there is no military solution to this. [3:48] There has to be a political, diplomatic settlement based on security, based on respect for sovereignty, [3:55] respect for the rights of the people in this part of the world. [3:58] Israel has maintained that it wants to keep a depopulated buffer zone in Lebanon's south. [4:02] Does that concern you? [4:03] DR. [4:04] BARHAM SALEH, Of course it concerns me. [4:05] Unless of these diplomatic initiatives and efforts are going to lead to a lasting security [4:12] and peaceful settlement that will end these type of arrangements. [4:16] Because at the end of the day, any of these areas are homes to people who have lived there [4:19] forever and for them to have to leave their homes is not something that anyone can condone [4:25] or accept. [4:26] Do you see that there is sufficient appetite on the part of international donors to support [4:30] the Lebanese government? [4:31] And what is the finding gap at the moment? [4:32] I think, to be fair, the United Nations has already published an appeal, a flash appeal calling [4:38] for $308 million for various UN agencies, UNSCR has called for about $61 million specifically [4:47] targeted at Lebanon to deal with the displacement crisis. [4:52] We have been receiving some contributions, we are grateful for those, but they are nowhere [4:55] near enough to deal with the scope and the scale of the problem that we have. [4:59] We need more, we need more engagement. [5:01] And remember also, we are not only dealing with the displacement that is happening as a result [5:05] of the last few weeks of war. [5:08] We are also dealing with large, large numbers of Syrian refugees who remain here, who have [5:14] already been, because of these events, have been displaced a year again. [5:19] And so you can imagine the kind of humanitarian consequences that this is bringing to bear. [5:27] Our teams are working hard at this to try to deliver the assistance needed for the people [5:34] who need it. [5:35] Thank you. [5:36] Dr. Barham Saleh, thank you for speaking to the NewsHour. [5:37] Thank you. [5:39] And late this evening in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered an [5:43] expansion of the Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon to occupy more territory and to march [5:49] eastward to expand what they call a security zone along Israel's northern border.