Fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, most fleeing to Beirut and elsewhere in the north over the past three weeks, Al Jazeera reports.
Ted Chaiban, Unicef’s deputy executive director for humanitarian actions, visited schools that have been turned into shelters to host displaced families.
“What struck me is that this war is three weeks old and so many children have been affected,” he said.
“As we sit here today, 1.2m children are deprived of education. Their public schools have either been rendered inaccessible, have been damaged by the war, or are being used as shelters.”
The Israeli military says it launched a total of 200 strikes across Lebanon in the last 24 hours as it expanded its targets against Hezbollah.
So far the main focus of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon has been in the Bekaa Valley in the east, the suburbs of Beirut, and in the south, where incidents involving Israeli troops and UN peacekeepers have created tension.
In response, Hezbollah launched counterstrikes, hitting targets in al-Marj inside Lebanon, where Israeli forces are carrying out a military operation. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
