Lebanon has experienced decades of political tension, economic instability, and conflict. The 1975-1990 civil war killed an estimated 150,000 people as well as repeated fighting with Israel, ultimately culminating in the 1989 Taif Agreement, which ended the war and restructured Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system by establishing parity between Muslims and Christians in parliament and redistributing executive powers. While the agreement helped end the civil war, underlying sectarian and political tensions have persisted. Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim political party and armed group backed by Iran, emerged during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and has since become a powerful political and military actor, particularly in the southern part of the country.
In 2024, Israel launched a major military campaign in Lebanon following an escalation of hostilities with Hezbollah amid Israel’s war in Gaza. Despite a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon—which Hezbollah also agreed to—renewed large-scale fighting in 2026 has again displaced hundreds of thousands of people and caused extensive destruction. Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm and continued Israeli military operations are hindering efforts to establish a durable security arrangement, which are further complicated by the broader conflict between the US, Israel, and Iran. Recent waves of successive violence and Israeli attacks and evacuation orders have displaced more than a million people and killed hundreds of civilians in Lebanon. As hostilities subside in some areas, hundreds of thousands of people have begun returning to communities where homes, livelihoods, and critical infrastructure have been extensively damaged or destroyed, complicating safe and sustainable returns. At the same time, Lebanon hosts the highest number of refugees per capita globally, including more than a million Syrians, placing additional strain on already-fragile public services and resources.
Decades of intermittent conflict have entrenched gendered protection risks in Lebanon. More than 620,000 women and girls—roughly one in four—were displaced during the March 2026 escalation of hostilities with Israel, comprising more than half of those living in collective shelters where overcrowding, lack of privacy, and limited services increase risks of gender-based violence and exploitation. Hundreds of women and girls have been reportedly killed in Israeli strikes in 2026, including journalists, doctors, and aid workers—with rights groups alleging that Israel’s targeted killings may amount to war crimes. The conflict has also contributed to a malnutrition and healthcare crisis; health systems have been overwhelmed by the scale of need and many have been damaged or forced to close altogether due to Israeli attacks.
The World Bank estimates that renewed conflict in 2026 will reverse Lebanon’s fragile economic recovery, with extensive damage to housing and infrastructure compounding the losses sustained in 2024 and Lebanon’s longstanding economic crisis. Women and female-headed households are disproportionately impacted by conflict-related economic shocks, and renewed destruction, displacement, and loss of livelihoods are further undermining economic security. Discriminatory personal status laws also limit women’s rights in property, marriage, divorce, and child custody, undermining their economic autonomy. Yet, women continue to push for change. Approximately 3,000 women ran in the 2025 municipal and mukhtar (mayoral) elections, aligning with the 2025 SALMA (“Together for Equality”) agreement’s 30 percent target for female representation. This follows the appointment of five women to Prime Minister Nawaf Salam’s 24-member cabinet in February 2025. In US-brokered talks between Israel and Lebanon in July 2026, Lebanon’s delegation included Ambassador to the United States Nada Mouawad, making her the only publicly identified high-level Lebanese woman participating in the negotiations and offering a limited but important entry point for women’s representation.
Despite the US-brokered framework between Lebanon and Israel in June 2026, negotiations have stalled and Israeli military operations have continued. Israeli forces have intensified operations around the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge, while Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon continue to kill and injure civilians, including women and children. The resurgence of conflict risks prolonging instability and complicating efforts to establish a durable political settlement, leaving women and girls at heightened risk of violence, displacement, and disrupted access to essential services.
More than 350,000 people in Lebanon remain displaced following months of fighting, while Israeli strikes and military activity are triggering new and repeated displacement and complicating relief and recovery efforts. Women and girls comprise more than half of those living in collective shelters where they face heightened risk of sexual and gender-based violence amid a lack of privacy and access to basic necessities. As hundreds of thousands of people attempt to return home, many are finding that their neighborhoods have been destroyed. Meanwhile, ongoing insecurity and restrictions on movement risk prolonging displacement and undermining safe, sustainable returns for women and girls who bear the brunt of protracted conflict.
The World Bank projects that Lebanon’s economy will contract by 6.4 percent in 2026 as renewed conflict and insecurity derail the country’s modest progress in 2025. Lebanon’s recovery is further constrained by the country’s low female labor force participation rate of just 22 percent—among the lowest rates globally. Persistent barriers to women’s economic participation, including gaps in maternity protections, further deepen Lebanon’s economic vulnerability and undermine efforts toward inclusive and sustainable recovery.
Escalating regional tensions and prolonged violence in Lebanon are deepening social divisions, raising concerns over renewed internal instability. The push for Hezbollah’s disarmament, including as a condition in the June 26 Trilateral Framework Agreement between the US, Israel, and Lebanon, has intensified domestic political tensions. Comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Lebanese Christians have also been viewed as an attempt to sow divisions. The pervasive impact of conflict continues to strain social cohesion and perpetuate risks for women and girls who bear the brunt of conflict and displacement.
Lebanon’s healthcare system has been devastated by months of Israeli attacks on critical infrastructure, particularly in the south which has seen the heaviest bombardment and mass displacement. Maternal and reproductive health services have been particularly affected, with reduced maternity care and prenatal services limiting access for pregnant women, new mothers, and GBV survivors. Continued displacement and funding gaps further constrain access, as the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.
Lebanese women are demanding reform of the country’s nationality law, which allows only men to pass Lebanese citizenship to their children and foreign spouses. Recent protests have renewed calls for equal citizenship rights for men and women, highlighting how the discriminatory law can leave children of Lebanese women without citizenship and restrict their access to residency, employment, education, and other basic rights. Reforming the nationality law to establish equal rights for women and men is essential to help strengthen women’s equal citizenship, protect families from discrimination, and advance broader gender equality in Lebanon.
