Figures and data in this call to action are approximate and constantly rising due to the ongoing war.*

13 March 2026

Since Israel expanded its war on Lebanon on March 2, more than 770 people have been killed to date, including more than 90 children and 50 mothers and women. This makes an average of 10 children per day. More than 1900 others have been wounded, including more than 260 children and 284 mothers and women, an average of 36 children per day.

The number of displaced has exceeded 822,000 persons, either due to Israeli mass forced eviction notices affecting large areas in South Lebanon, the southern suburb of Beirut, and the Bekaa, or as a result of Israeli shelling, killings, and the destruction of homes and livelihoods.

A blatant violation of the “ceasefire agreement”

This outcome comes 13 months after Israeli attacks on Lebanon that had exceeded 12,000 according to UNIFIL statistics. These attacks had claimed the lives of nine children in direct shelling and more than 300 victims, most of them civilians.

According to UNICEF data, in cumulative terms, 329 children have reportedly been killed in Lebanon and 1632 injured in the last 28 months, the period from the first round of the war on Lebanon until now.

During the ceasefire agreement, in addition to directly targeting children, families, and civilians, the Israeli occupation army deliberately obstructed all aspects of life for the residents of the Lebanese South, particularly in the border villages that were almost completely destroyed:

• Expanding occupation points into Lebanese territory
• Bombing the remaining and the prefabricated houses used temporarily by residents
• Continuous war on the health sector and the children’s right to the needed healthcare, treatment, and recovery through attacks on primary healthcare centers, ambulance services, and paramedics
• Air and land violations and terrorizing residents and children
• Preventing children from safely accessing education in southern villages, especially border ones
• Ongoing assault on the agricultural sector, which is a source of livelihood for many rural families, forcing farmers to abandon their crops, bulldozing land and soil in border villages, bombing, and spraying of chemicals as part of a systematic policy aimed at destroying vegetation and biodiversity in order to prevent families from returning.

The ongoing war

Today, Israel is escalating its war on Lebanon and its children, continuing its attacks in flagrant violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in all its articles. During the first week of the current war, the number of killed children has increased by 25%, a tragic toll that completely disregards all laws protecting children during wars.

Data on the Israeli war on Lebanon and its children so far

• Ten children are killed daily in Israeli bombing.
• Displaced persons are being directly targeted, and entire families are being massacred. Israel employs a recurring pattern of targeting families as they gather for the “Iftar” with the aim of killing as many as possible.
• 13% of Lebanon’s population is currently displaced, mostly due to mass Israeli evacuations, similar to Gaza. The number of self-registered displaced persons exceeds 800,000, with only about 128,000 of them residing in shelters. The total number of displaced persons could reach one million.
• Many families are sleeping in open spaces, and many have become homeless. Shelters are 90% full according to the UNHCR.
• Israel continues its policy of targeting the health sector and medical facilities, a policy that had begun in the first round of the war. Hospitals are being evacuated on Israeli orders, constituting a grave violation of the International Humanitarian Law and amounting to a war crime. These evacuations have resulted in patients’ deaths.
• Children in areas under attack are being deprived of their right to education, widening the gap between them and children in other regions of Lebanon.
• The dire economic and living conditions in Lebanon exacerbate the challenges of humanitarian interventions.

Lebanese children, their families, and their caregivers are experiencing for the moment the worst conditions in years. Hence, the Arab Network for Early Childhood (ANECD) calls for the following:

• Urgent intervention by the international community to end the ongoing Israeli aggression against children and civilians in Lebanon. UN agencies must fulfill their responsibilities towards children under international and humanitarian laws and prevent a repetition of the ongoing tragedy in Gaza.

• Relevant institutions in the early childhood sector must grant children in Lebanon sufficient media, institutional, and relief attention and amplify their voices, in line with efforts made in other regional conflicts, while moving away from double standards.

• Mobilizing the efforts of these regional and international institutions and providing all possible support for intervention and relief efforts, especially given the high number of forcibly displaced persons from their homes.

Stop the war immediately. Stop the aggression on Lebanon and its children!