Hezbollah-Israel conflict: at least 5 billion USD of economic losses in Lebanon according to the World Bank

Lebanon, already reeling from an unprecedented economic crisis, has suffered “economic losses” of more than $5 billion in a year of cross-border violence between Hezbollah and Israel that escalated into war, the World Bank said Thursday.

Since October 8, 2023, “the conflict has also damaged approximately 99,209 homes,” damage estimated at nearly $3.4 billion, the World Bank (WB) added in a report.

The Israeli army continued its strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon on Thursday, killing more than 40 people including women and members of the Civil Defense, according to the Ministry of Health and rescue workers.

The day after an attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza, the Lebanese armed movement Hezbollah opened a front against neighboring Israel in support of Hamas.

The almost daily exchanges of fire consisted mainly of rockets or drones fired by Hezbollah from southern Lebanon, its stronghold, against northern Israel, while the Israeli army carried out air raids on the strongholds of the Lebanese movement.

After weakening Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which it has been bombing relentlessly in response to the attack of October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has since September 23 concentrated and intensified its bombing campaign in Lebanon.

Destruction in the southern suburbs of Beirut after Israeli raids, November 14, 2024 © AFP – –

According to the WB study, which mainly covers the period from October 8, 2023 to October 27, 2024, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has caused “economic losses of $5.1 billion,” mainly in the sectors of trade, tourism, hospitality and agriculture.

Of the approximately “99,209 homes” damaged, 18% are “totally destroyed.” About 81% of the affected outbreaks are mainly in the south of the country, bordering northern Israel.

– At least 40 dead in Lebanon –

An old man walks amidst the destruction caused by Israeli strikes in the Rweiss neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut, November 14, 2024 © AFP – –

Between the economic crisis and the repercussions of the current conflict, Lebanon “is losing the equivalent of 15 years of economic growth,” the World Bank said, referring to the country's economic collapse since 2019.

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Israel claims to want to neutralize Hezbollah in the border regions of southern Lebanon to allow the return home of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the movement's fire, an ally of Iran, Israel's sworn enemy.

But Hezbollah continues to fire rockets at Israel, even if most are intercepted.

On Thursday, new Israeli strikes targeted Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon: the southern suburbs of Beirut near the international airport, and the city of Baalbeck (east), where eight people were killed, including five women, according to the Ministry of Health.

Near Baalbeck, 12 people, including eight rescue workers, died in an Israeli raid on a Lebanese Civil Defense center, according to reports from the Health Ministry and the organization.

Rescue workers carry a body from a site hit by an Israeli strike in the city of Baalbeck, eastern Lebanon, on November 14, 2024 © AFP – Nidal SOLH

In the south, six people, including four Hezbollah-affiliated medics, were killed in an Israeli strike in Arabsalim, the ministry said.

The US diplomacy has expressed its “concern” about the Israeli strikes south of Beirut. “(…) We don't want to see this kind of (military) operation in Beirut, particularly in densely populated areas,” the State Department said.

– 20 dead in raids in Syria –

Smoke clouds over the site of an Israeli airstrike in the Ghobeiry neighborhood, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on November 14, 2024 © AFP – –

In parallel with the airstrikes, Israeli troops have been conducting a ground offensive in southern Lebanon since September 30.

The Israeli army said it had struck “around 30 terrorist targets” in the southern suburbs of Beirut in the last 48 hours, with the aim of “dismantling and weakening Hezbollah's military capabilities.”

The day before, the new Israeli Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said: “we will not make any ceasefire, we will not take our foot off the gas” in the face of the Hezbollah”.

In neighboring Syria, where Israel has also intensified its strikes according to a Syrian NGO, at least 20 people were killed Thursday in raids against residential buildings in the Mazzeh neighborhood of Damascus and the Qoudsaya region in the suburbs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The Israeli army confirmed strikes against “military bases of Islamic Jihad”, a Palestinian armed movement allied with Hamas.

The raids coincided with a visit to Damascus by Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, expected in Beirut on Friday.

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