The UN’s child relief agency, UNICEF, said Tuesday that more than 200 children had been killed by Israeli attacks on Lebanon since Israel escalated its bombing campaign in the country in September.
“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,” said UNICEF spokesman James Elder.
Elder detailed some recent strikes that killed children, including an attack that slaughtered an entire displaced family. “On Sunday, 10 November: Seven children were killed from the same extended family. The family of 27 – all killed – was seeking shelter in Mount Lebanon after fleeing violence in the south,” he said.
Elder said that over the past two months, an average of about three children have been killed per day by Israel’s bombing campaign. “Many, many more have been injured and traumatized,” he said.
He also noted that hundreds of thousands of Lebanese children have become homeless as Israel’s airstrikes and invasion of southern Lebanon have displaced an estimated 1.2 million people.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that the latest Israeli attacks have brought the death toll since October 2023 to 3,544 and the number of wounded to 15,036. The majority of the casualties have happened since September 23, the day Israel massively escalated its bombing campaign.