Geneva, November 20 (RHC)-- UNICEF says more than 200 children have been killed and 1,100 others injured in Lebanon in less than two months since the Israeli regime escalated its deadly offensive in the country. UNICEF spokesperson James Elder made the remarks at a press conference in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday, while condemning the inaction of influential world powers on Israel’s ongoing violence against children.
"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," Elder said. He went on to say that an average of three children have been killed every single day over the last two months, stressing that "for the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalization of horror."
“This violence has to stop immediately or the consequences will be unconscionable,” UNICEF deputy representative to Lebanon Ettie Higgins said. "Many, many more have been injured and traumatized," Elder said, adding that in the past two months, more than 1,100 children had been hurt in the violence.
The UNICEF spokesman also stated that the Israeli regime’s “disproportionate attacks” have led to thousands of children becoming homeless in Lebanon, adding that “Medical facilities are being attacked and health workers are being killed at an increasing speed.”
Elder further noted that there are "chilling similarities" between the conflicts in Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip, where a significant portion of the more than 43,000 people killed in the ongoing war are reported to be children. “In Lebanon, much the same as has become the case in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable. And the appalling is slipping into the realm of the expected,” he said.
Save the Children says about 300,000 children have fled from Lebanon to Syria in the past seven weeks. Israel launched a ground assault and massive air campaign against Lebanon in late September after a year of exchanging fire across the Lebanese border in parallel with the Gaza war.
More than 3,400 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon over the last year, with the vast majority in the past several weeks. Over 14, 600 have been wounded, mostly women and children.
In response to the ongoing aggression, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah has been staging hundreds of retaliatory strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli forces trying to advance on southern Lebanese areas.
The movement has vowed to sustain its strikes until the regime ends the escalation.
[ SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES ]
