Civilians evacuate the Ghobeiri neighborhood in Beirut's southern suburbs to safer areas on the outskirts of the Lebanese capital, following an Israeli army evacuation warning before targeting the district on November 14, 2024. Photo: AFP
More than a year of escalating clashes, which recently turned into full-scale war, has cost Lebanon over $5 billion in economic losses, with actual structural damage amounting to billions more, according to the World Bank. Since September 23, Israel has intensified its air campaign in Lebanon, later deploying ground troops after nearly a year of limited, cross-border exchanges initiated by Hezbollah over the Gaza war. Lebanon's health ministry reported at least three fatalities on Thursday due to an Israeli strike on the main eastern city of Baalbek. Intensified strikes attributed to Israel have also impacted Hezbollah's ally, Syria, where the defense ministry reported 15 deaths on Thursday.
In its Lebanon report, the World Bank estimated the damage between October 8, 2023, and October 27, 2024, stating that "the conflict has caused $5.1 billion in economic losses," with damage to physical structures amounting to "at least $3.4 billion" on top of that. The losses are "largely concentrated in the commerce, tourism, and hospitality sectors... as well as in the agriculture sector," the report noted. The conflict has also "damaged an estimated 99,209 housing units"—mainly in Lebanon's war-torn south near the border with Israel—totaling $2.8 billion in damages. Eighty-one percent of damaged and destroyed houses are located in the Tyre, Nabatiye, Saida, Bint Jbeil, and Marjayoun districts.
The final cost of damage and losses for Lebanon associated with the conflict is expected to significantly exceed the combined $8.5 billion estimated in the report, the bank said. The World Bank estimates that the conflict reduced Lebanon's real GDP growth for 2024 by at least 6.6 percent. Lebanon had already been struggling since 2019 due to an intense economic crisis that pushed most of the population into poverty. "This compounds five years of sustained sharp economic contraction in Lebanon that has exceeded 34 percent of real GDP, losing the equivalent of 15 years of economic growth," the World Bank stated. This week, Israel intensified its raids on south Beirut, hitting the Hezbollah stronghold with three waves of air strikes on Thursday alone. The strikes were preceded by Israeli evacuation warnings instructing residents to leave immediately. Repeated strikes have resulted in a mass exodus of civilians from the once densely populated residential area, although some return during the day to check on their homes and businesses.
More than 3,380 people have been killed in Lebanon since the clashes began last year, according to the health ministry, the majority of them since late September. Israeli strikes on Syria have also intensified recently, including in areas near the border with Lebanon, where Israel claims it is targeting sites belonging to Iran-backed Hezbollah. Thursday's strikes hit residential buildings on the outskirts of the capital, as well as in the Mazzeh neighborhood, home to embassies, United Nations offices, and security headquarters. Israeli authorities rarely comment on individual strikes in Syria but have repeatedly stated they will not allow arch-enemy Iran to expand its presence there.
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