Even if the conflict were to quickly come to an end, the damage that has been done to farmland will take decades to undo.

“Thirteen government water projects have been completely destroyed,” said Hussein Fawaz.

“These allowed farmers to irrigate their crops, as well as providing domestic water to rural and village communities”.

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“Fruit trees across 60,000ha of land have been completely burned by phosphorus shelling as of 27 May,” he said.

“So far 130,000ha of land cannot be reached due to the conflict. If the war continues, the trees and crops there will soon die.”

The environmental damage is also significant.

“The Israel army has sprayed highly concentrated glyphosate (the universal herbicide) across a vast area,” Hussein said.

“Testing by the Lebanese government shows the concentration of glyphosate to be up to 20 times higher than the recommended rate, over 50 litres of chemical per hectare”.

In addition, phosphorus bombs have devastating environmental effects, he explained. “Our government estimates that 200,000,000t of toxic rubble and soil, containing phosphorus, lithium and other pollutants. About 600,000 people have been displaced.

“Many farmed less than a hectare, a farmer with six or seven hectares would be regarded as middle-class. Now they are sitting jobless and without any income.”

Since we spoke, that figure has increased significantly. The ancient city of Tyre was served with an evacuation order on Tuesday, bringing the displaced population to over one million people.

For context, it’s the equivalent of the all the people in Kerry, Clare, Cork and Limerick being made homeless, as Lebanon’s population is similar to Ireland’s at 5.8 million.

Many of these people are leaving the country right now, some will never return. The cost of war.