The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has estimated the number of Syrians in need of assistance in Lebanon to be 1.5 million.

In a report released on Thursday, June 6, the UNHCR mentioned that it set a plan to target 442,000 individuals, including 221,000 males and 221,000 females.

These numbers align with the official Lebanese narrative claiming the presence of 1.5 million Syrian refugees in the country, who the government categorizes as displaced persons rather than refugees to avoid what it sees as their permanent settlement.

The number of Syrian refugees registered with the UNHCR in Lebanon is approximately 780,000.

According to the UNHCR report, more than 6,000 Syrians in Lebanon received assistance from the UNHCR during the first quarter of 2024, accounting for just 1%.

During the same period, 20 Palestinian Syrians in Lebanon received assistance amid a plan targeting 3,145 people, with 6,161 people needing aid.

In the first quarter of this year, more than 5,000 individuals received conditional cash support from the UNHCR to mitigate eviction risks due to inability to pay rent, including 3,556 Syrians.

Regarding housing improvements, the UNHCR provided support to 495 displaced Syrians in Lebanon out of 1,703 beneficiaries, while 187 Syrians received assistance for minor repairs to non-residential buildings to improve their living conditions and ensure greater safety, according to the UNHCR.

In response to the emergency situation in southern Lebanon caused by “hostilities” at the Lebanese border, the UNHCR provided cash aid to 367 individuals, including 33 Syrians.

The Israeli escalation in southern Lebanon resulted in the death of around 300 Hezbollah fighters and about 80 civilians, in addition to the deaths of 18 Israeli soldiers and 10 Israeli settlers, according to Reuters on June 5.

The number of displaced individuals reached 94,126, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) as of May 28.

Syrians in Lebanon

Syrian refugees in Lebanon are suffering from a security campaign against them that began following the assassination of Pascal Suleiman, a coordinator in the Lebanese Forces Party, on April 8. This incident increased the calls for the deportation of Syrians, as Lebanese authorities accused Syrians of being involved.

The Lebanese army issued a statement saying that it had arrested most members of a “Syrian gang” accused of killing Suleiman after kidnapping him and transporting his body to Syria to steal his car.

On May 14, Lebanese authorities resumed organizing what they described as the “voluntary return” of about 330 Syrian refugees through two border crossings in Arsal and the town of al-Qaa, after a halt of about a year and a half, according to the National News Agency (NNA).