Over 200 Children Have Died in Almost Two Months of War in Lebanon

More than 200 children have been killed in Lebanon since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah almost two months ago, an average of "more than three" a day, UNICEF warned today.

"While more than 200 children have been killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting trend is emerging: these deaths are being met with inaction by those in a position to put an end to this violence," said James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund, during a press conference in Geneva.

"We must hope that humanity never again witnesses such a slaughter of children as in Gaza, but there are frightening similarities with the children in Lebanon," he said.

According to Elder, "in Lebanon, as in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly becoming acceptable," denouncing "a silent normalization of horror."

The Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has escalated its conflict with Israel along their shared border following the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7, 2023, which triggered the war in the Gaza Strip. The Lebanese movement claims it was acting in support of Hamas.

After a year of cross-border firefights, Hezbollah and Israel went into open war on September 23, and the Israeli army has been carrying out ground incursions into southern Lebanon since September 30.

"A little over 200 [children killed] have been recorded in less than two months," Elder said, adding that "at least 231 children" have died in Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023.

UNICEF "does not identify those responsible, but anyone who follows the media should have a pretty clear idea of ​​how these children were killed, where the rockets were fired from, where these children were, where they were fleeing to (...), the same thing that is happening in Gaza," the spokesperson noted.

More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since October 8, 2023, according to the Ministry of Health, the majority since September 23 of this year. On the Israeli side, 46 civilians and 78 soldiers have been killed.

Israel says it wants to remove Hezbollah from the border regions of southern Lebanon to ensure the return home of some 60,000 residents of northern Israel displaced by the conflict for more than a year.

In Lebanon, tens of thousands of residents have also been displaced from their homes.