By Nohad Topalian | 2024-05-15

BEIRUT -- Seven months after Hizbullah's opening of a southern front in the Israel-Hamas war, Lebanon, particularly its border villages in the south, has endured massive losses in all economic sectors.

Lebanon has recorded economic stagnation since the outbreak of the war in the south, Bank Audi's quarterly report revealed this month.

Damage to the south exceeds $2 billion, it said.

Meanwhile, the losses to the entire Lebanese economy are estimated at $4 billion, Bassem al-Bawab, an economist at the American University of Beirut, told Al-Fassel.

Fighting between Hizbullah and Israel has "wiped out the service, production, tourism, industry, trade and agriculture sectors," he said.

"Tourism has declined to its lowest level, with expatriates refraining from visiting Lebanon," he said.

The production sectors have lost an estimated $600 million a month during the past seven months, in addition to vanished job and investment opportunities, al-Bawab said.

Hizbullah's continuation of the war means "more catastrophic repercussions on all productive sectors that feed the Lebanese economy," he added.

Losses in south Lebanon

The conflict has inflicted huge losses on the south and the Bekaa, including from the destruction of thousands of homes, establishments and offices, and the loss of olive, tobacco and citrus crops.

Some 1,700 buildings have been destroyed, while about 14,000 have been damaged, estimates Lebanon's Southern Council, an official body assigned to assess destruction.

Damage to southern buildings and institutions exceeds $1 billion, it said.

Infrastructure, including water, electricity, roads and health services, has suffered additional damage of about $500 million, according to figures provided by council chief Hashem Haidar, AFP reported May 8.

Since fighting continues, the estimates cannot include all the destruction in harder-to-reach areas, Haidar said.

Rmeish mayor Milad al-Alam told Al-Fassel the border town has suffered economic losses "estimated at $20 million."

"Rmeish and all the border villages are paying a heavy price for the war that Hizbullah started," he said.

The money needed to rebuild these towns would have been better invested in peaceful times to help develop the border villages, he noted.

The south has suffered "major economic losses," he said, adding that any compensation "will be allocated to reconstruction and not to resumption of economic activity."