Israel’s escalated assault on Lebanon is killing three children each day on average, the UN children’s agency reports, as Israel’s intensified bombardments and raids take a horrific toll on the country.
Over 200 children have been killed in Lebanon over the past two months of Israel’s expanded aggression in Lebanon, according to UNICEF. This amounts to over three child deaths per day on average.
At a press conference, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder detailed child killings from every day of the past week of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, ending with an attack on Sunday in which two 4-year-old twin girls were killed.
“Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged: their deaths are met with inertia from those able to stop this violence. For the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalization of horror,” said Elder. “In Lebanon, much the same as has become the case in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable.”
Since October of 2023, Lebanon’s Health Ministry has documented 231 children killed and 1,330 injured, as Israel has pounded Lebanon with bombs, targeting civilian areas in Beirut and across southern Lebanon.
In all, Israel has killed 3,500 people in Lebanon and injured nearly 15,000. Israel has also forced over 1 million people to be displaced, including an estimated 400,000 children. The Israeli military’s targeting of Lebanon’s health care system is especially severe, with at least 286 Israeli attacks on health care in the country, killing at least 208 health care workers in total.
The attacks have seemingly intensified recently, according to a Washington Post analysis of Lebanese Health Ministry data, with an average of 3.5 children killed and 9.5 children wounded each day in the past three weeks. The Post detailed how Israeli strikes on residential buildings in Lebanon are so severe that they shred the bodies of their child victims to pieces.
In a video missive on Monday, Elder expressed horror at the lack of action to protect children amid Israel’s aggression.
“‘It’s complicated. The war is complicated.’ I’m so sick of hearing these words. There’s nothing complicated about this. What’s complicated about a child’s bedroom? What’s complicated about the way their clothes were set for the next day?” an emotional Elder asked. “There is nothing complicated about a child going to bed and expecting to wake up the next day.”
“There’s nothing complicated about the fact that children in Lebanon deserve protection. And they’re getting none,” Elder concluded.
There is no end in sight to Israel’s assault. This week, Lebanon, Hezbollah and U.S. officials reportedly agreed on a ceasefire agreement, with talks being headed by the U.S. But Israeli officials have pledged to continue their assault on Lebanon no matter what, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying Monday that Israel would openly defy a ceasefire if a deal was reached.
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