Save the Children reports Israel has killed average of seven children daily in Lebanon since March

Israel has killed an average of seven children each day in Lebanon since March, according to the Save the Children relief organisation.

In a release on Wednesday, the group said that despite agreements between Lebanon’s government and Israel aimed at ending the fighting, children remain at risk due to Israel’s ongoing aggression towards civilian infrastructure.

Over the last six months, Israel has killed at least 4,300 people, wounded over 12,000 and destroyed between 60 and 70 villages, according to Save the Children. The toll includes at least 257 children killed and 1,039 injured.

Nora Ingdal, group’s Lebanon country director, said “The international community must not allow continued attacks, displacement, restrictions on return and the destruction of civilian infrastructure to become the new normal for children in Lebanon.”

At the peak of the fighting, more than a million people were displaced in southern Lebanon. Over 348,800 people remain unable to return home despite the ceasefire signed in June, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Hezbollah and Israel began launching cross-border strikes following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The two sides reached a tentative ceasefire agreement in November 2024 after Israel seized swathes of territory in southern Lebanon. Israeli forces have continued to occupy many areas in southern Lebanon and have repeatedly violated the ceasefire.

The deal largely collapsed after the Lebanon-based armed group Hezbollah launched a rocket and drone attack against a military base in northern Israel on March 2, in retaliation for the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Lebanese government and Israel reached a framework agreement to end the fighting in June, which Hezbollah has rejected unless Israel fully withdraws from Lebanese territory.

The two sides reached an earlier agreement aimed at ending the fighting in April.

Save the Children said that even for children who have been able to return to their homes in recent months, barriers to all forms of essential services, including schools and hospitals, persist.

A nationwide assessment conducted by Lebanon’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education has found that 340 schools have been damaged or destroyed in the past six months.

At least 100,000 children are at risk of missing the next school year without urgent action to restore Lebanon’s schools, according to Save the Children.