"Twenty-three days into the escalating conflict in the Middle East, children across the region are paying a devastating price. A further descent into a wider or protracted conflict would be catastrophic for millions more.
"More than 2,100 children have been killed or injured, including 206 children killed in Iran and 118 in Lebanon. Four children killed in Israel and one in Kuwait. These are reported figures, and they are expected to rise as the violence continues. That is an average of approximately 87 children either killed or injured every day since the beginning of the war.
"Behind these numbers are parents, grandparents, teachers, brothers, and sisters. Communities, cities, and nations are in shock.
"Alongside the dead and wounded, we are witnessing rapid displacement across several countries, driven by relentless bombardment and evacuation orders that have emptied communities, and entire urban areas. In Iran, "UNHCR estimates that up to 3.2 million people have been displaced, including up to 864,000 children.
"In Lebanon, more than 1 million people are displaced, including an estimated 370,000 children - nearly one third of the displaced, with many families taking refuge in public buildings, including schools. Some 90,000 Syrians have returned to Syria since the onset of the conflict, alongside several thousand Lebanese.
"Across the Middle East, around 44.8 million children were already living in conflict-affected settings before this escalation. The consequences of what is unfolding now will be long-lasting for them.
"Too many homes, schools and hospitals, the systems and services children depend on, have been damaged or destroyed. Health systems that were already under strain are now buckling. Supply chains are disrupted.
"The Secretary-General has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and genuine de-escalation. Every party must exercise maximum restraint. Under international humanitarian law, civilians must be protected at all times. Schools are not targets. Hospitals are not targets. Children are not targets.
"I have just returned from Lebanon where I spent the entire of last week and what I witnessed there and what is unfolding across the region, requires the full attention and a clear, collective response.
"I was also there when the previous escalation started, in October 2024, and saw firsthand conflict and displacement at that time. I come to you now with an even deeper sense of urgency.
"Lebanon's crisis has been intensifying for years. Children have lived through economic collapse, institutional fragility and repeated cycles of violence including the war 18 months ago and now. What we are seeing adds deep layers of impact on children.
For many families, this is not the first time they have been forced to flee. It is another episode in a cycle of disruption that has yet to break. They are now back to overcrowded shelters or living with relatives or in unfinished buildings where conditions are strained. There is fear that conditions are going to get worse in Lebanon before it gets better.
"More than 350 public schools are used as shelters, disrupting the education of around 100,000 students, and though efforts underway to provide access to online education and other ways for children to access learning and teaching, as we know, schools provide more than learning. They offer structure, protection and continuity. When schools close or are repurposed, those stabilizing elements are lost.
"At a hospital in Beirut I met a 14-year-old called Nour, who was being treated for severe injuries after her home got bombed. She told us she was sleeping in her room and woke up to find stones and rubble on top of her. She was screaming and the people around her were screaming too. Everyone around her in her family was injured. She felt like her heart was pushing her to scream so help would come. She was pulled from under the rubble and is now recovering at this hospital. Hundreds of children didn't have the same luck.
"This is not an isolated case. It reflects the broader situation facing children and families across Lebanon and indeed in other parts of the region as well.
"As I mentioned, 118 children have been killed and 372 injured in Lebanon since the escalation began. If you add those two numbers up, that's the equivalent of a classroom of children every day that's killed or injured.
"In a shelter in Beirut, I met 15-year-old Fatima who had escaped with her family from the South to the same school they took refuge in 18 months ago. She told me that the night before I met her she had laid awake listening to the bombing hitting the southern suburb of Beirut worried about her family, her friends, her future. All she wants is to be able to go home and get back to school.
"Public services in Lebanon are under severe pressure. Water systems have been damaged. Health workers have also been killed as they try to rescue populations.
"UNICEF has reached 151,000 IDPs in more than 250 shelters and in hard-to-reach areas with essential non-food items. We are providing water and sanitation support in 188 shelters, serving around 46,000 people. We have prepositioned 221,000 high-energy biscuit (HEB) packages and more than 144,000 ready-to-use complementary food (RUCF) jars, to prevent wasting among children. Over 13,000 children in shelters have received educational and learning materials. Fourteen injured children have received life-saving surgery. Working with our colleagues from WFP we are using a humanitarian notifications system to conduct convoys to the south of the country to reach families who have stayed behind. Theres a few thousand families still in the south and we worked to reach them with essential water, food, and health supplies.
"However, the scale of needs is increasing faster than available resources and faster than 18 months ago. Over one million people displace figure has moved much faster and risks rising further. The UN issued a flash appeal for $308 million USD, the UNICEF portion of that is $48.2 million. This is a three-month flash appeal. At present, there is a 86 per cent funding gap. A key demand is for support to be able to sustain the response but also essential services that are critical for the population and for the displaced in particular.
"We are calling for three immediate actions:
- a cessation of hostilities and protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure. We remind all parties of their obligations under International Humanitarian law. And as the SG has indicated, we need a deescalation and a political way forward to this war;
- safe, rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access to support the kind of missions that are being undertaken to go south. This becomes more difficult to do as several of the bridges have now been cut; and
- urgent financial support to sustain the response.
"Thank you for your attention."
