Nearly 29,000 displaced in Lebanon amid skirmishes on Israel border: UN

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

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

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 Hezbollah fighters but also including at least four civilians, one of them Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah.

Clashes between the two sides have been worsening since 7 October when Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel from the besieged Gaza Strip, killing 1,400 people and capturing 229 hostages.

Israel's indiscriminate retaliatory bombardment of the Gaza Strip has killed 7,703 people, including 3,195 children, according to figures released by Gaza's health ministry on Saturday.

The death toll in Gaza is the highest of any Israeli attack since Israel withdrew from the Palestinian territory in 2005.