War Against Israel Leaves Shattered Lebanese Economy on the Brink

Tourism and agriculture are some of Lebanon’s most affected sectors, primarily in the southern regions that depend on them

No one walks on Tyre’s beaches anymore. No foreign languages complement its clean water. For the past five months, tourists can be counted in dribs and drabs in this Mediterranean city in the south of Lebanon, 25 kilometers from Israel’s border. The empty hotels and restaurants reflect a Lebanon at war, abandoned to its own fate. In the main southern city in the south of the country, the strange silence and quietness reflect another added layer of suffering for the Lebanese people who, before October 7, were already going through the worst economic crisis in the world since 1850, according to the World Bank.

“There are no tourists, there is nothing, no one comes,” lamented a bartender at the most coveted hotel in Tyre. The 21-year-old, who prefers not to share his name for safety, told The Media Line that about twenty people work for two guests. Of the 14 rooms, almost always disputed over during times of peace, only one is currently occupied. “People are starting to lose their jobs; this is not normal here,” he said.

Since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Army and the Lebanese militia Hizbullah have clashed along the border shared by both countries. Beyond the displacement of some 83,000 inhabitants from neighboring villages and the human losses—around 215 Hizbullah fighters and nearly 40 civilians have died—these skirmishes have helped to crack the battered Lebanese economy further.

Last December, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) warned that Lebanon could lose between two and four percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) as a result of the war. The World Bank also recalled that the 2006 conflict lasted 33 days and caused “a loss of economic production of 10.5% of GDP and direct and indirect damages of 3.1 billion dollars.” At that time, Lebanon was not in a historic economic crisis.

Over the past four years, the country has seen its national currency plummet, inflation figures break records, and fragile public services crumble. Since 2019, its GDP has fallen by 50 percent, and 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

“The situation was already very bad with the economic debacle, but now it is much worse,” a humanitarian worker based in Tyre told The Media Line. NGOs, which until now supported Syrian and Palestinian refugee populations and those most vulnerable sectors of the Lebanese people, are preparing for the worst.

Lebanon’s southern region concentrates on two main sectors supporting the country’s economy. Therefore, it is also the scene of its debacle. On the one hand, tourism, which provides up to 40% of national income, has been severely affected. Many countries, including Australia, France, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom, have discouraged their citizens from visiting Lebanon and have advised those there to leave while commercial flights are still available.

According to Lebanon’s union of restaurants, nightclubs, and cafes, the restaurant sector has seen a drop in business of up to 80% since October 7. Ali works as a waiter in a five-story restaurant in Tyre. “We don’t know when the bombs will fall on us,” he told The Media Line. “Every day, there are attacks from planes and drones. It is very, very difficult to live like this,” he said.

Outside of tourism, agriculture has been one of the most affected sectors since the southern regions produce 22% of the country’s fruits and citrus and 38% of its olives, according to the Ministry of Economy. The agricultural sector is critical for this area as it represents up to 80% of the local GDP of southern Lebanon, according to the UNDP report.

“The population of the border villages depends on the cultivation of tobacco and olives. That is all they have,” the humanitarian worker said. “In three months, they used to collect enough to sustain them financially for the whole year, but now they don’t even have that,” she told The Media Line. As of January 1st, Lebanon’s National Early Warning System had recorded that approximately eight million square meters, about 800 hectares, of land had experienced fires “resulting from Israeli attacks.”

Since the beginning of the fighting, Israel has used white phosphorus, an incendiary substance prohibited by international law whose use in civilian areas constitutes a war crime. “The result of the bombing with white phosphorus and flares on our regions by the Israeli Army has caused 130 forest fires, and we have lost more than 40,000 olive trees in southern Lebanon in the middle of the olive harvest season,” denounced the interim minister of Agriculture, Abbas Hajj Hassan, in a statement.

Farmers have warned that these attacks risk the country’s food sovereignty. Unlike what happened in 2006, this time, Lebanon has no one in charge. The country has neither a government nor a president due to the inability of the political leaders, who are widely corrupt and guilty of the economic debacle, to reach an agreement.

“If this continues, next summer will be very hard because most people will not come to Lebanon for fear of war,” Ali said. But we Lebanese are strong people. We have already been through this, and we are not afraid,” he told The Media Line, surrounded by empty tables without a trace of tourism.

Although everyone tries to avoid entering the political debate, they know that it is not in their hands. “This is a humanitarian cause; everyone should get more involved,” said the young bartender from the hotel lobby. “Both the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah are doing their job to protect this country.”