Israel's war in Lebanon has now forced 1.2 million people to flee their homes, with the majority fleeing to Beirut and northern areas in the past three weeks since the conflict escalated.
A family fleeing Israeli airstrikes in the south sits next to their tent on the Corniche of Beirut, Lebanon, Monday, Oct. 14, 2024. AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
Ted Chaiban, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Operations, visited schools that have been converted into shelters for refugee families.
“What haunts me is that this war has only been going on for three weeks and yet so many children have been affected,” Chaiban said. “As of now, 1.2 million children have been deprived of their rightto education . Public schools are either inaccessible, or damaged by the war, or are being used as shelters.”
Although some private schools in Lebanon are still operating, the public school system has been severely affected by the war. “What worries me is that hundreds of thousands of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian children are at risk of losing their education,” Chaiban said.
More than 2,300 people in Lebanon have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, nearly 75 percent of them in the past month, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry . In the past three weeks, more than 100 children have been killed and more than 800 injured, Chaiban said.
Displaced children are also living in cramped shelters where three or four families have to share a classroom separated by plastic sheets, and where 1,000 people have to share 12 toilets, not all of which are working, he said.
Many displaced families have set up tents along roadsides or on public beaches.
Most of the displaced children have experienced a lot of violence, including the sound of shelling or gunfire, which makes them fearful of any loud noise. There have also been “consecutive evacuation orders.” “We are still in the early stages, and the impact is already profound,” Chaiban said.
The escalating conflict has also paralyzed more than 100 primary health care facilities, while 12 hospitals are no longer functioning or only partially functioning.
Water supply systems have also been hit. In the past three weeks, 26 water stations serving nearly 350,000 people have been damaged, Chaiban said. UNICEF is working with local authorities to repair them.
He called for the protection of civilian infrastructure and for a ceasefire in Lebanon and Gaza, stressing that there was a need for political will and recognition that the conflict could not be resolved by military means.
“We have to make sure that this stops, that this madness ends, that there is a ceasefire before we see the level of destruction and suffering that happened in Gaza,” Chaiban said.
A $108 million emergency aid appeal for Lebanon is only 8 percent funded after three weeks of escalating conflict, he said.
Hong Hanh (according to AP)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/lien-hop-quoc-hon-400000-tre-em-o-lebanon-da-phai-so-tan-trong-3-tuan-chien-tranh-post316866.html
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