Lebanon Faces Crisis: A Generation Lost
Lebanon stands on the brink of losing an entire generation to conflict, poverty and social and economic disintegration. Years of political turmoil, weak governance and economic meltdown have been compounded by recent wars between Israel and Hezbollah.
LONDON: When Sabah thinks about Lebanon’s turmoil and what lies ahead, she finds herself filled with rage and despair.
While much of the world carries on uninterrupted, the lives of tens of thousands of young men and women in the country remain in limbo.The 25-year-old organizational psychologist from Sidon, an ancient city on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, told Arab News that the world moves on while many here have been left with nothing but fragments of memory, and others have lost even that.
“Hundreds of thousands here have been deprived of the most basic needs,” she added.
“They can’t access essential resources, their homes have been destroyed, their memories erased, their past lives vanished.”Lebanon stands on the brink of losing an entire generation to conflict, poverty and social and economic disintegration.
Years of political turmoil, weak governance and economic meltdown were compounded by the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah.A UN-backed report released in July 2024 said the conflict left nearly half of Lebanon’s young workforce without jobs matching their skills and disrupted schooling for 500,000 students.
Between September and late November, 69 percent of children were forced out of classrooms.The report also found that the war displaced 1.2 million people, damaged or destroyed 64,000 buildings, pushed unemployment to nearly 30 percent, and rolled back human development to 2010 levels.Basic necessities are increasingly out of reach.
The UN estimates that 1.6 million people will face acute food insecurity, while child malnutrition has reached critical levels in Baalbek Hermel and Bekaa, where more than half of children under the age of two live in severe food poverty.Lebanon’s 2019 financial collapse was described by the World Bank as one of the worst globally since the 1850s.
The crisis left the state weakened and society vulnerable to further shocks.
Then came the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, which erupted on Oct. 8, 2023, as a cross-border fire exchange between Israeli forces and the Lebanese militant group.The conflict intensified in September 2024, when Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior party leaders and commanders before its army began a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
By January, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 4,285 people had been killed, 27 percent of them women and children.On Nov. 27, a ceasefire agreement was reached.
It called for Hezbollah’s withdrawal north of the Litani River, Lebanese army deployment in the south, and an Israeli pullback within 60 days.
But Israel did not fully pull its troops by the deadline, citing Lebanon’s failure to fully enforce the agreement.
While much of the world carries on uninterrupted, the lives of tens of thousands of young men and women in the country remain in limbo.The 25-year-old organizational psychologist from Sidon, an ancient city on Lebanon’s Mediterranean coast, told Arab News that the world moves on while many here have been left with nothing but fragments of memory, and others have lost even that.
“Hundreds of thousands here have been deprived of the most basic needs,” she added.
“They can’t access essential resources, their homes have been destroyed, their memories erased, their past lives vanished.”Lebanon stands on the brink of losing an entire generation to conflict, poverty and social and economic disintegration.
Years of political turmoil, weak governance and economic meltdown were compounded by the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah.A UN-backed report released in July 2024 said the conflict left nearly half of Lebanon’s young workforce without jobs matching their skills and disrupted schooling for 500,000 students.
Between September and late November, 69 percent of children were forced out of classrooms.The report also found that the war displaced 1.2 million people, damaged or destroyed 64,000 buildings, pushed unemployment to nearly 30 percent, and rolled back human development to 2010 levels.Basic necessities are increasingly out of reach.
The UN estimates that 1.6 million people will face acute food insecurity, while child malnutrition has reached critical levels in Baalbek Hermel and Bekaa, where more than half of children under the age of two live in severe food poverty.Lebanon’s 2019 financial collapse was described by the World Bank as one of the worst globally since the 1850s.
The crisis left the state weakened and society vulnerable to further shocks.
Then came the recent Israel-Hezbollah war, which erupted on Oct. 8, 2023, as a cross-border fire exchange between Israeli forces and the Lebanese militant group.The conflict intensified in September 2024, when Israeli strikes killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and other senior party leaders and commanders before its army began a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
By January, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said at least 4,285 people had been killed, 27 percent of them women and children.On Nov. 27, a ceasefire agreement was reached.
It called for Hezbollah’s withdrawal north of the Litani River, Lebanese army deployment in the south, and an Israeli pullback within 60 days.
But Israel did not fully pull its troops by the deadline, citing Lebanon’s failure to fully enforce the agreement.
