News

As global headlines focus on soaring oil prices and financial turmoil, there is a risk of overlooking the real human cost of the Middle East conflict – the devastating toll it is taking on children. 

In some of the world’s toughest environments, from Sudan to Ukraine to Lebanon, football is providing far more than entertainment - it is helping children to stay safe, process trauma and reclaim a sense of childhood.

Since the temporary ceasefire 22 children have been killed in Lebanon, and 89 injured in less than a month. 

Whilst an extension of the ceasefire has been agreed, children still cannot tell the difference between the sound of thunder and bombs, as families are too afraid to return home. 

Response to the temporary pause in hostilities in Lebanon -  almost 20 children a day have been killed and injured by Israeli forces airstrikes since 2 March, nearly 800 children injured or killed. 

Children in Lebanon have been separated from their families following 24 hours of brutal airstrikes 

In the hours since the ceasefire was agreed, Israeli military bombing has intensified in Lebanon to some of the worst levels since the conflict began. 

More than 1.2 million people - a fifth of the population - have been displaced in Lebanon since 2 March due to Israeli airstrikes and forced displacement orders including 350,000 children.

Food prices have surged in some of the most food-insecure countries in the Middle East and wider region due to the ongoing conflict, threatening to push the most vulnerable families further into hunger as Eid approaches.

Save the Children staff have reported that families have fled with only basic necessities, often without time to pack vital documents, clothing or medication. But some children are refusing to leave behind their most treasured items including their pets and favourite toys.  

Jana, 28, is Save the Children’s Awards Management Coordinator in Lebanon. She has been displaced three times by conflict in Lebanon, the first time when she was eight years old. Jana and her family fled their house in Beirut on 2 March shortly after missiles struck a nearby neighbourhood. 

Ten days since the first strikes in the Middle East and wider region 83 children have been killed in Lebanon, and almost 300 children have been killed in the region.

Save the Children warned the orders issued to up to 500,000 people in southern Beirut could result in a humanitarian catastrophe.

As armed conflict spreads in the wider region, about 58,000 people, including an estimated 16,000 children have been displaced in Lebanon in the past three days children with seven children reported killed.

From safe schools to ending child marriage to cleaning up the oceans, children across the globe used their voices for their rights  

Nearly one third of children in Lebanon – 29% - began the new year facing crisis levels of hunger, with some pushed into child labour to support their families, said Save the Children after new data showed an almost 5% increase in child hunger in the past three months.

Save the Children welcomes the ceasefire but said that the violence must stop immediately.

About 300,000 children have fled from Lebanon to Syria in the past seven weeks to seek safety from the worsening conflict, only to arrive in a country where humanitarian needs have never been higher. We have multimedia content to accompany this press release: www.contenthubsavethechildren.org/Package/2O4C2S11VJ1U

The humanitarian situation in Lebanon continues to rapidly deteriorate; the latest Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed at least 60 people, including two children.

The first case of cholera was detected in Lebanon, where over 400,000 children have been forcibly displaced  by the escalating conflict. Children in Lebanon are now at growing risk of skin diseases, cholera, and other waterborne diseases due to overcrowded, basic conditions in collective shelters and a lack of water and sanitation facilities.