Israeli strikes on Lebanon leave a classroom of children dead or wounded every day, UN says
Israel’s war on Lebanon has killed or wounded the equivalent of an entire classroom of children daily, according to a top official of the UN children’s agency.
Lebanon’s health ministry reported that Israeli strikes have killed at least 111 children and wounded 334 since Israel expanded its attacks on Lebanon two weeks ago.
“That’s a classroom of children every day since the beginning of the war that’s either killed or injured in Lebanon,” Unicef deputy executive director, Ted Chaiban, told Reuters in Beirut on Tuesday.
“They’ve paid a terrible price. And the first thing we’re calling for is a de-escalation, a political way forward to this war.”
Israeli strikes have killed more than 900 people since 2 March and displaced more than one million, including 350,000 children.
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“It’s completely disrupting children’s lives. No home, no school, no sense of normalcy,” Chaiban said.
Displaced families interviewed by Reuters said the shelters they are taking refuge in have limited electricity, no heating and not enough bathrooms or running water.
At least 38 health workers have also been killed in Israeli strikes in the last two weeks, and civilian infrastructure has been targeted.
“There is no place for attacking health infrastructure, water infrastructure, schools. They all need to be places that are protected,” Chaiban said.
Save the Children’s director for Lebanon, Nora Ingdal, called these air strikes “devastating” and emphasised that “these are not just numbers – these are young lives cut short and children whose futures have been forever scarred by war.”
'This is only the beginning'
The Israeli army relaunched its attacks on Lebanon following strikes by Hezbollah on 28 February in retaliation for the killing of the Iranian supreme leader in a joint US-Israeli bombing campaign on Iran.
Before that, Israel had violated a November 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah hundreds of times through near-daily attacks on Lebanon and the military occupation of territories in the south.
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on 5 March that Beirut’s southern suburbs “will look like Khan Younis” in reference to the destroyed city in southern Gaza.
About 14 percent of Lebanon’s territory is currently under Israeli orders for residents to leave their homes, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
The Israeil military on Friday destroyed a bridge over the Litani River, which bisects southern Lebanon from east to west.
On Wednesday, the military said it would target bridges and crossings over the Litani, essentially cutting off a large part of the south from the rest of the country.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened the Lebanese government that Israel will continue attacks on the region until Hezbollah is disarmed.
“This is only the beginning, and the Lebanese government and the Lebanese state will pay an increasing price through damage to Lebanese national infrastructure that is used by Hezbollah terrorists,” Katz warned.
However, France’s special envoy for Lebanon has said it is unrealistic to expect Beirut to disarm Hezbollah, a goal which Israel's long occupation of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000 failed to achieve, in such a short time whilst under bombardment.
The leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the UK issued a joint statement on Monday, warning that “a significant Israeli ground offensive would have devastating humanitarian consequences” and “must be averted”.
Hezbollah has insisted that it cannot disarm as long as Israel poses a threat to the region.
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