YWCA Lebanon and World YWCA Statement on the War in Lebanon

War in Lebanon again. The people dying are civilians.

For six weeks, a war launched by Israel has killed over 2,000 people. Wounded more than 7,000. Driven more than 1 million from their homes. Bridges are destroyed. Hospitals have been overloaded. Schools are shelters now. And none of this is happening to a country that had anything left to give. Lebanon was already gutted by economic collapse, by displacement, by the port explosion, by the earlier war, and by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. War is never abstract for World YWCA. We have team members in Lebanon. We have a community there. These are people we know. Colleagues, friends, women whose ordinary Monday morning turned into something chaotic with the relentless bombing of civilian spaces. This means lost family and friends, lost homes and means of livelihood, disrupted or absent YWCA community services, and limited freedom of movement.

A recent email from a YWCA leader in Lebanon said, “Today, one of the first bombs was 100 meters away from our YWCA office, and we were all there, the hostel residents and the building staff.”

This chaos is a weight that will not change for a long time. As always, such weight is heaviest for women and is carried the longest by women.

They are in overcrowded shelters, informal housing, arrangements no one would call safe. What is left is the work of keeping children alive, of managing trauma without help, of surviving conditions so reduced that the word “life” barely applies anymore. For adolescent girls, it gets worse – harassment, exploitation, violence that thrives exactly when the structures meant to prevent it disappear.

Mona Khauli, National Executive Director of YWCA Lebanon, asks, “How many times must our country pay for the insane actions of leaders who are steering world politics?” Indeed, power structures – often a very small handful of people – devastate entire communities and generations. 

YWCA leaders have borne witness to this for centuries. In theory, so has the international community. 

Yet, the international community keeps performing the same strange ritual: expressing concern while supplying the means. Governments arm, fund, and provide political cover for this. They hand someone a match and then share platitudes of heartbreak about the fire. 

YWCA Lebanon and World YWCA call for adherence to the announced ceasefire, not select adherence or a subjective interpretation, but immediate, and then sustained ceasefire: 

  • We call for the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure. This is not a radical demand; it is what international humanitarian law already requires. 
  • We call for adequate, accessible humanitarian access. This includes reproductive healthcare, mental health services, and support for survivors of gender-based violence. 
  • We call for an end to forced displacement and the varied manifestations of collective punishment. 
  • We call for an end to the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon and safeguarding of Lebanon’s sovereignty over its land and resources. 
  • And we call for full accountability. For those who did this, and for those who made it possible – in court and within the systems of justice. Words are not enough from people who pull the levers in a power structure. 

For more than 160 years, the global YWCA movement has defended human rights, rejected violence, and acted toward just peace. At the 30th World YWCA Council in November 2023, the highest decision-making body of the global YWCA movement, adopted a resolution to promote human rights and support the Middle East region’s movements work towards sustainability.

We ask you to demand dignity, justice, and accountability for all, not just some people.