Palestinians try to continue their daily lives among the rubbles of demolished buildings under the difficult conditions due to Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 17, 2024. (AA Photo)
By Newsroom
Nov 19, 2024 2:57 PM
The United Nations has reported that more than 200 children have been killed in Lebanon over the past two months as violence between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder shared the alarming statistics during a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, emphasizing the lack of action to halt the escalating conflict.
#Lebanon: hundreds of children killed. #Gaza: tens of thousands of children killed & wounded. Response from those with power to prevent the carnage: Zero pic.twitter.com/RpHEgJYpoS
UNICEF spokesperson James Elder’s A Palestinian boy carries a plastic container as he walks through debrist next to a building destroyed in recent Israeli bombardment in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on November 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)A Palestinian woman looks out of her residence’s window in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunison November 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)A Palestinian boy collects plast bottles for recycling in the war-battered southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis on November 19, 2024, amid the ongoing war in the Palestinian territory between Israel and Hamas. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)A boy transports a box of humanitarian aid, supplied by the World Food Program, back to his home in the Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip on November 18, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and the Hamas militant group. (Photo by Eyad BABA / AFP)
UNICEF raises alarm over child fatalities
Elder stated that the deaths of children in Lebanon are met with “inertia” from those in a position to intervene.
“Over the last two months in Lebanon, an average of three children have been killed every single day,” he said. More than 1,100 children have been injured, and countless others traumatized by the violence, according to Elder.
KHAN YUNIS, GAZA – NOVEMBER 17: Palestinians try to continue their daily lives among the rubbles of demolished buildings under the difficult conditions due to Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 17, 2024. ( Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency )KHAN YUNIS, GAZA – NOVEMBER 17: A Palestinian child is seen in a baby walker as Palestinians try to continue their daily lives among the rubbles of demolished buildings under the difficult conditions due to Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 17, 2024. ( Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency )KHAN YUNIS, GAZA – NOVEMBER 17: Palestinians try to continue their daily lives among the rubbles of demolished buildings under the difficult conditions due to Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 17, 2024. ( Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency )KHAN YUNIS, GAZA – NOVEMBER 17: Palestinians try to continue their daily lives among the rubbles of demolished buildings under the difficult conditions due to Israeli attacks in Khan Yunis, Gaza on November 17, 2024. ( Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency )
Impact on critical infrastructure
Elder highlighted attacks on essential infrastructure, including medical facilities, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis.
“Medical facilities are being attacked, and health workers are being killed at an increasing speed,” he said. Lebanese authorities have recorded over 200 health worker deaths and more than 300 injuries as of November 15.
The U.N. noted parallels between the situation in Lebanon and Gaza, with hundreds of thousands of children displaced.
“In Lebanon, much the same as in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable,” Elder said, describing the ongoing violence against children as slipping into normalcy.