“We don’t want war. We are tired of wars. But we also refuse to stand in the middle of gunfire and be killed,” said Ali, who works in construction. “For a year and a half, the situation has continued like this […] We want peace, but Israel keeps bombing us.”
Ali is one of more than a million people in Lebanon displaced in little more than three weeks by Israeli military attacks and forced displacement orders. These cover around 14% of Lebanon’s territory, including large parts of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs sheltering among their cars in a parking lot. Martyrs’ Square, Beirut, Lebanon.
From the occupied Palestinian territory to Lebanon and in the wider region, ActionAid warns that the State of Israel is repeating the same pattern across borders: causing forced displacement, destroying homes and vital infrastructure, killing unarmed women, children and men, and isolating communities from one another. This is driving mass expulsion in Lebanon and could amount to war crimes.
Military operations are not a licence to permanently drive people from their homes. Under international law, any displacement of civilians must be temporary, and people must be allowed to return. Yet, as Israel’s Minister of Defense, Israel Katz pronounced last week, many thousands of Lebanese people in the south “will not return […] until security is guaranteed for the residents of the north” of Israel, raising grave concerns that this mass forced displacement is not meant to be temporary and could have permanent consequences.
Throughout the occupied Palestinian territory this pattern is painfully familiar; 9 in 10 people have been forcibly displaced multiple times in the last two and a half years alone. As Israeli bombs continue to rain on the people of Gaza, despite a so-called “ceasefire” agreement signed six months ago, around 1.7 million people remain forced to shelter in some 1,600 displacement sites, often in awful conditions.
Meanwhile, the so-called “Yellow Line” divides Gaza into two zones, cutting Palestinians off from almost 58% of their land, with people forcibly expelled and blocked from returning.
Doaa, a pregnant woman from Khan Younis, Gaza, has been supported by ActionAid’s partner WEFAQ during the genocide.
Doaa, a pregnant woman from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, has been repeatedly displaced in the last two and a half years and survives in a small tent with her husband and their four children.
Doaa is currently accessing support from ActionAid’s partner, WEFAQ, who provides services for around 50,000 women in Gaza including legal support, mental health care and humanitarian assistance. “The first time we were displaced, we were in Al-Hanawi School,” said Doaa. “It was the beginning of my pregnancy, and they were bombing us with white phosphorus. After that, we came here, and there was also a famine – I had anaemia and felt dizzy all day […] I feel suffocated and exhausted all the time.”
For pregnant women, even the most basic care has become dangerously out of reach. Around 94% of Gaza’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed and only 18 of 36 hospitals are even partially functioning. More than 18,500 patients need urgent care outside Gaza due to the destruction of the health care system, and await medical evacuations repeatedly blocked or delayed by Israeli authorities. Over 1,000 patients have already died waiting.
ActionAid’s partner WEFAQ provides psychological support to a woman in Gaza through their hotline service.
In Lebanon too, women are being forced to navigate pregnancy and childbirth while displaced by Israeli attacks and cut off from the care they need. Out of 13,500 pregnant women who are among the forcibly displaced, 1,500 are expected to give birth in the coming month, including in overcrowded school shelters and tents.
In the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the same pattern of dispossession is deepening through accelerated annexation measures, state-backed settler attacks, land seizure and militarised restrictions. In the first three months of 2026 alone, 1,697 Palestinians were forcibly displaced by settler violence and access restrictions, already surpassing the total recorded in 2025.
Michelle Higelin, Executive Director of ActionAid Australia, highlighted that the international community must act. “Israeli forces are acting with complete impunity across the region, all in pursuit of what we fear is territorial expansion,” she said.
“Government leaders know exactly what international law requires. The problem is that they are not using all tools available including ceasing military co-operation and using diplomatic leverage, political pressure, sanctions, and other legal measures to stop the State of Israel’s continued violations. Israel is taking this as a green light to deepen its strategy of expulsion, widespread destruction and attacks on civilians.”
Without real consequences for Israeli authorities and settlers, we could see the same levels of devastation in Lebanon as we are seeing today in the occupied Palestinian territory. ActionAid is calling for a real, region-wide ceasefire – one that protects civilians, ensures aid reaches those who need it, and ends the cycle of impunity that has fuelled injustice and oppression for far too long.
In Gaza, Doaa just wants a safe life, but cannot stop worrying about the future, “They call it a “ceasefire,” but the bombs are [right next to us] and we hear the shelling. It’s all empty talk. Fear grips us,” she says.
You can support ActionAid’s humanitarian response by donating to our Middle East Emergency Appeal. If you would like to support our advocacy to the Australian Government, you can write to PM Albanese to call for a ceasefire in the Middle East.