Nabatiyeh Governorate

Nabatiyeh Governorate represents the most severely impacted territory in Lebanon's 2024 conflict, experiencing maximum physical destruction, population displacement, and economic disruption. Like a habitat subjected to catastrophic disturbance, the governorate's agricultural lands, residential areas, and commercial infrastructure suffered extensive damage. The World Bank assessment identified Nabatiyeh alongside South Governorate as bearing disproportionate conflict costs within Lebanon's $8.5 billion total damage estimate.

The governorate demonstrates the vulnerability of peripheral territories in asymmetric conflicts. Positioned between Israeli military capabilities and Hezbollah operational centers, Nabatiyeh's civilian population and infrastructure became the substrate upon which armed conflict was conducted. Agricultural production—particularly tobacco and olive cultivation that historically sustained local economies—was disrupted by displacement, unexploded ordnance, and infrastructure destruction.

Nabatiyeh's post-conflict trajectory illustrates incomplete recovery dynamics. International aid and reconstruction attention concentrated on Beirut's port and banking reform, while southern governorates received less systematic reconstruction support. The governorate's economic base, already weakened by Lebanon's broader crisis, lacks the institutional capacity and capital access to rebuild autonomously. This creates persistent territorial inequality where conflict damage is not proportionally addressed by recovery resources.