More than 100 days of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah have left a devastating mark on Lebanon’s children. Since fighting escalated on 2 March, 247 children have been killed and 992 injured, an average of 12 killed or maimed every day, according to UNICEF.

The humanitarian situation remains acute and severe despite the recent US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding and tentative signs of regional de-escalation. Israeli airstrikes and renewed displacement orders covering 37 localities across the south and Nabatieh governorates triggered further displacement between 12 and 14 June. Lebanese public health authorities have recorded 3,798 deaths and 11,781 injuries since 2 March. Some 131,200 internally displaced persons remain in 644 collective shelters. The 2026 Lebanon Flash Appeal stands at only 32.7% funded, with approximately $209.6 million received against $639.9 million requested.

UN peacekeepers in the south, UNIFIL, continue to observe significant military activity despite the reduction in overall hostilities. Between midnight and 4pm on Wednesday alone, 312 trajectories were recorded, 291 attributed to the Israel Defence Forces and 21 to Hezbollah. Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire have been reported across multiple locations, including Nabatieh, Saida and Jezzine.

UNICEF’s country representative, Marcoluigi Corsi, recalled a meeting with a 14-year-old girl at a UNICEF-supported hospital whose father and three brothers had been killed in an attack that left her in a coma. The first two questions she asked upon regaining consciousness were: where is humanity, and where a sense of justice is. “Those are tough questions coming from a 14-year-old child that you cannot answer,” he said.

More than 770,000 children are experiencing heightened distress from repeated exposure to violence, loss and displacement. Beyond those killed and maimed, Corsi warned, an entire generation has had its childhood disrupted. Their sense of safety, he said, remains profoundly undermined. The true cost of this crisis will be measured not only in lives lost today, but in opportunities missed tomorrow.

 Source: UNICEF Lebanon Flash Update; OCHA; UN News, 17 June 2026