An average of 87 children are being killed or injured every day in the mutlifront conflict in the Mideast since the United States-Israeli joint military action in Iran started on Feb. 28, says a senior official of Unicef.
Ted Chaiban, the deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations of the UN agency, told journalists at UN headquarters in New York City on Monday, March 23, that over 2,100 children have been killed or injured, including 206 killed in Iran, 118 in Lebanon, 4 in Israel and 1 in Kuwait.
“A further descent into a wider and more protracted conflict would be catastrophic for millions,” Chaiban said, having just returned from Lebanon. “Around 44.8 million children were already living in conflict-affected settings before this war, and the consequences of what is unfolding now will be long lasting for them.”
Chaiban narrated the story of a 14-year-old girl who was pulled from under the rubble in Lebanon, after her home was destroyed by an airstrike, saying many children were not as lucky.
The conflict, which has extended since Feb. 28 to Lebanon and numerous Gulf states, has left an estimated 3.2 million people displaced, including 864,000 children. (Iran’s numbers are not included.) Chaiban said that more than a million people, including 400,000 children, have been displaced in Lebanon alone. The figure there — where Israel and Hezbollah, the militia have renewed fighting — accounts for one-third of total displacement in the region, Chaiban added.
Families who were recovering from earlier displacement 18 months ago, when Israel and Hezbollah were attacking each other until a fragile ceasefire was installed in November 2024, are now redisplaced, with many people living in repurposed schools or with relatives in unfinished buildings.
Lebanon was drawn into the conflict after a March 2 attack on Israel by Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia, in sympathy with Iran, its main backer. Hezbollah said it was targeting Israel to avenge the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, killed at the start of the US-Israel joint military operation in Tehran on Feb. 28.
The fresh outbreak of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues in parallel with attacks by US and Israel on Iran and retaliatory drone and missile assaults by Iran on its Gulf neighbors and as far as away as Syria and reportedly Cyprus and Türkiye.
Israel has vowed to continue its military assaults in Lebanon until Hezbollah is decapitated or Lebanon commits to de-arming the militants. Homes, schools, hospitals and other civilian infrastructure have been damaged or destroyed as Israel pushes forward with its campaigns in the region, most recently blowing up bridges across the Litani River in the south.
Over the weekend, UN peacekeepers, who are based in southern Lebanon, reported continued heavy exchange of fire in both directions along the Blue Line of demarcation — along the Litani — as well as intense airstrikes across their area of operations in this region of Lebanon. On Monday, UNIFIL reported an explosion at their own headquarters, in Naqoura, with smoke emanating from a structure believed to have been caused by a munition. There were no reported casualties and the full extent of the damage is still being evaluated.
In Lebanon, Unicef and other UN agencies are providing humanitarian support like water, food and health supplies, but Chaiban said the needs, particularly for people outside the 600-plus official shelters, outweigh resources.
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Damilola Banjo is an award-winning staff reporter for PassBlue who has covered a wide range of topics, from Africa-centered stories to gender equality to UN peacekeeping and US-UN relations. She also oversees all video production for PassBlue. She was a Dag Hammarskjold fellow in 2023 and a Pulitzer Center postgraduate fellow in 2021. She was part of the BBC Africa team that produced the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Sex for Grades.” In addition, she worked for WFAE, an NPR affiliate in Charlotte, N.C. Banjo has a master’s of science degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and an undergraduate degree from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria.
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Damilola, thank you for this important contribution. Indeed the world of children in the Mideast is a real nightmare and humanity is doing nothing about it. Never seen so many dead, injured, orphaned, malnourished and amputated children in my entire life! Again– UN says—but the fondamental question is –what UN is doing to improve their situation–Nothing–Completely absent in action or in meetings!