UN says nearly 29,000 displaced in Lebanon amid skirmishes on Israel border

BEIRUT — Nearly 29,000 people have been displaced in Lebanon amid deadly exchanges between Iran-backed Hizbollah fighters and the Israeli army, a United Nations agency said on Friday.

A total of 28,965 people have been displaced, mainly in the country's south, the International Organisation for Migration said in an update, adding that the figure had risen by 37 per cent since October 23.

Some have found refuge with family members elsewhere in the country, while those who can afford it have been able to rent apartments on a short-term basis.

But with Lebanon in the grips of an economic crisis that has plunged most of the population into poverty, some are living in makeshift shelters in the south's larger towns.

In Lebanon, at least 58 people have been killed in the cross-border exchanges of fire, most of them Hizbollah fighters but also including at least four civilians, one of them Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.