UNICEF Appeals for Support, Calls for Action to Protect Children Caught in Israel-Hezbollah Conflict
Since the sharp escalation in armed cross-border conflict in southern Lebanon last week, UNICEF has deployed extensive efforts and resources to support the resilience of displaced families — delivering lifesaving supplies and providing health and nutrition, child protection and psychosocial support services for children in need. Efforts to scale the humanitarian response are under way as thousands flee to Syria, a country already contending with multiple crises of its own. But more donor support is needed.
1 million people in need of urgent assistance, including 350,000 children
UNICEF has released a new plan for humanitarian action for children and families caught in the rapidly deteriorating situation in Lebanon and urgent appeal for support to reach the estimated 1 million people now in need of assistance.
"I am deeply concerned," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. “Thousands of children and families are now living in the streets or in shelters; many having fled their homes without essential supplies and belongings. Humanitarian conditions are growing worse by the hour."
Hostilities on the Lebanon-Israel border escalated sharply in September 2024, leading to the deadliest period of the conflict, with more than 1,600 deaths, including 104 children, 194 women and two UN staff, and over 8,408 injured, UNICEF reported.
The unprecedented surge in casualties and displacement has magnified the already profound effects of a year of violent conflict in the region. UNICEF is continuing to expand emergency preparedness and response activities beyond Gaza to meet the growing needs of children and families. UNICEF also continues to be concerned about the safety of and mental health impacts of conflict on children in Israel. (Learn more about where UNICEF works here.)
In Lebanon, shelters have been set up to accommodate 1 million internally displaced people. So far, the UN has counted 346,000 IDPs, including 121,000 children, while UNHCR, the UN's lead refugee agency, reports that over 100,000 Lebanese and Syrians have fled Lebanon for Syria.
UNICEF Syria Representative Yasumasa Kimura was in Jdeidet Yabous, Rural Damascus as refugee families were arriving, their children exhausted and traumatized.
Watch the video:
An ongoing emergency response by UNICEF and partners focused on delivering health and nutrition, child protection and psychosocial support
The catastrophic escalation in hostilities comes against a backdrop of Lebanon's existing socio-economic troubles. The country has the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world, as host to 1.5 million Syrian refugees, 23,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria and 180,000 Palestinian refugees. Almost half of all households in Lebanon are impoverished, while the vast majority of refugee families live in extreme poverty.
The conflict is taking a psychological toll on those displaced — especially women and children. Many have been displaced multiple times, compounding trauma from exposure to violence and the stress of living in overcrowded and unsafe conditions.
UNICEF is providing psychosocial support to women and children, focusing on resilience building and trauma recovery, as well as dignity kits and gender-based violence services and prevention, to help keep them safe in what is a very challenging and dangerous environment.
In close collaboration with the Government of Lebanon, UNICEF and partners have provided thousands of bottles of clean drinking water, hygiene kits, education and recreation supplies for children, blankets and sleeping bags, nutritional supplements and baby food and more. As of Oct. 1, over 50,000 people had been reached in more than 200 collective shelters across South Lebanon, Beirut, Mount Lebanon, North Lebanon, Bekaa, and Baalbek-Hermel governorates.
UNICEF has also initiated critical repairs on damaged water and sanitation facilities, dispatched 20 mobile health units to provide lifesaving medical care and immunizations, and delivered 100 tons of emergency medical supplies to hospitals facing severe shortages and stock-outs.
Additional medical supplies, including essential medications and emergency health kits, are set to be delivered in the coming days to support emergency response teams and hospitals treating the injured.
UNICEF's call to action: keep supply routes open, ensure essential services continue — and prioritize the protection of children
While scaling up its response, UNICEF is also urging all parties involved in the conflict to refrain from actions that obstruct children's access to education and health care services and to safeguard schools and hospitals.
UNICEF is also calling for sustained support from the international community to meet urgent humanitarian needs, ensure that essential services continue and damaged facilities can be restored. Supply routes must remain open to allow for the rapid and safe delivery of aid.
"Countless children remain in great danger," Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Representative in Lebanon, said. "These children have the right to protection, along with the vital services they depend on."
Children have the right to protection, along with the vital services they depend on.
UNICEF needs $105 million in donor funding to respond to the needs of displaced families and their host communities — the estimated 1 million people, which includes about 350,000 children — for three months, while continuing to prepare for potential further escalation in the conflict.
The plan's key targets are to reach:
- 1 million people with sufficient access to safe water
- 620,000 people with multi-purpose cash assistance, including people with disabilities
- 400,000 people through mobile medical teams
- 220,000 children and caregivers with community-based mental health and psychosocial support
- 200,000 displaced children with learning materials or early childhood development support
"UNICEF is responding to the most critical and immediate needs of children in Lebanon, but requires urgent support to sustain and expand its response," Beigbeder said. "UNICEF has assisted the children of Lebanon for decades, and we are committed to stay and deliver during this critical time."
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