People stand holding supplies, including buckets and toilet paper in an aid shelter in Lebanon. Photo: Supplied by Aya Moghrabi/World Vision Lebanon
An aid worker on the ground in Lebanon says tens of thousands of civilians are going to be left in the cold this winter without proper access to basic services.
World Vision Lebanon said the number of people at humanitarian shelters set up in public schools across the country had halved two days into the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Almost a week on, the truce appeared to be holding.
"After the ceasefire, the need does not end," World Vision's Josephine Haddad said.
She was based just outside of the country's capital Beirut and said more than 100,000 people had left aid shelters within 48 hours of the ceasefire being announced.
World Vision's Josephine Haddad. Photo: Supplied by World Vision
Haddad said they were trying to head home in the hope their house had been left standing.
But the Israeli military had told people not to return to border areas, saying it was still to dangerous for civilians.
Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have 60 days leave the border lands.
The Lebanese government said Israel had already breached the ceasefire with Hezbollah on multiple occasions.
"People are concerned, but they're hoping that the cease fire lasts," Haddad said.
The current conflict was just the latest in a string of emergencies Lebanon had faced in recent years.
"Since 2019, there was the uprising, then the Beirut blast, then the impact of Covid, the cholera outbreak ... children have been going from one crisis to another," she said.
Hot meals, pyscho-social support, shelter and remote educational support were among the services being provided by aid agencies, Haddad said.
"The economic crisis has really affected people, 80 percent of the population in Lebanon live in poverty."
Winter had just begun to settle in across the country, as thousands of people were newly made homeless.
Support was now focusing on heating, shelter, healthcare and rebuilding, Haddad said.
"Collective shelters are public schools that are not equipped to host families."
They did not have sufficient heating or all of the facilities that people desperately needed, she said.
Meanwhile, fighting had continued in Gaza, where the Israeli military was still trading blows with Hamas.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said no ceasefire would be entertained until the remaining Israeli hostages during the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October last year were released.
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