Developments in Lebanon and Israel

Visit of the Special Representative to Lebanon

The situation in the Middle East has been a continuing concern to child protection actors, especially after the war between Lebanon and Israel in 2006. In Lebanon the Special Representative met with the Prime Minister and other senior government officials. She also met with many children, particularly in the south, including the hard-hit town of Bint Jbeil, and in the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in south Beirut. She was impressed by their resilience, but the hidden psychological effects and the long-term consequences should not be underestimated. Lebanese children have also suffered directly from the surrounding violence: they account for one third of all civilians killed, a third of the injured and half of the over 1 million people forced to flee their homes. Forty schools in affected areas were totally destroyed, and school dropout rates increased dramatically because of insecurity. In addition, children are particularly exposed to the hundreds of thousands of unexploded cluster munitions fired by the Israel Defense Forces in the last three days of the conflict. Relatively little is known about the use of children as soldiers in Lebanon. There are no reports of underage recruitment in the regular armed forces and only anecdotal evidence of their presence in the armed faction of Hizbullah. However, there are significant concerns that the dire situation of Lebanese youth, the ongoing political violence and the desperate social and economic conditions may prompt children to become involved in armed conflict.

During the Special Representative's interactions with the Government, the authorities expressed their willingness: (a) To prioritize the protection of children and, with help from the international community, to provide adequate education and psychosocial support to children; (b) To move forward with the ratification of the relevant Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child once the parliamentary process is in motion. Hizbullah gave its commitment to support this initiative.

The situation in Lebanon

The conflict involving Lebanon and Israel which began on 12 July 2006 has resulted in more than 1,109 Lebanese civilians killed and 4,405 injured, and 43 Israeli civilians killed, including 7 children, and 200 civilians injured. It is estimated that one third of the dead and wounded in Lebanon are children. Further, on 30 July, the Israeli air force bombed the village of Qana, in southern Lebanon, killing 28 civilians, including 16 children. On several occasions, Israeli forces attacked individual vehicles and convoys of civilians fleeing their villages after Israeli warnings that the villages would be bombed.

About 975,000 people, constituting approximately one quarter of the Lebanese population, were displaced during the hostilities. More than a third of these are reported to be children. As at 30 September 2006, 200,000 people had still not yet been able to return to their homes, while others had returned to their destroyed homes and villages. It is estimated that 30,000 homes were destroyed throughout the country, particularly in southern Lebanon and the suburbs of Beirut.

During the conflict, indiscriminate Hezbollah rocket attacks in northern Israel killed seven children. A large number of civilians in northern Israel, including a significant proportion of children, were also displaced, having sought safety further south or spent lengthy amounts of time in crowded shelters. Further, the Hezbollah rocket attacks also damaged and destroyed at least 6,000 homes as well as over 30 schools and day-care centres.

The war also caused extensive damage to schools and hospitals in Lebanon. In Baalbek, the main hospital, with an estimated population of 80,000, was reportedly severely damaged during ground and air military operations in north-east Lebanon. In southern Lebanon, Ghandour hospital in Nabatiyeh was also extensively damaged. All hospitals in the affected areas are also encountering serious shortages of drugs, fuel, electricity and water supplies. Rapid assessments of the losses in the education sector indicate that between 40 and 50 schools were totally destroyed, while around 300 schools need repair.

Children in Lebanon were also denied access to humanitarian assistance owing to an Israeli military blockade of Lebanon’s borders, seaports, bombing of roads and Beirut’s airport. Bombardments of electricity plants and water bores also resulted in power cuts and water shortages, increasing food and health insecurity of children particularly.

Since the cessation of hostilities on 14 August until 28 September 2006, the presence of a large number of unexploded munitions, including an estimated 1.2 million cluster bombs, 90 per cent of which were apparently fired in the last three days of the conflict, poses a special threat to children by heavily contaminating the destroyed infrastructure, school grounds and agricultural lands.

• Visit to the Middle East - Press Briefing 23 April 2007 - Webcast | Summary | UN News Article
• Peace must come to the Middle East for the sake of the children (19 April 2007)
• Lebanon: All parties agree to protect children affected by armed conflict (12 April 2007)
• Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict will be visiting Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel from 10 to 19 April 2007
• MIDDLE-EAST CRISIS- How many children will die before the parties agree to stop hostilities? (August 2007)
• UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict calls for the protection of children in the Middle East Crisis (20 July 2006)

For more information, visit UNICEF's web pages on Lebanon as well as the UN News Center

* Information based on the 2006 report of the Secretary General to the Security Council (A/61/529-S/2006/826) issued on 26 October 2006