Shattered Childhood: How Lebanon War Is Impacting Children Amid Massive Displacement

Fatima is too young to understand the magnitude of tragedy that has hit her family as she finds a moment of joy while cycling in rainy Beirut. It is the second time in two years the four-year-old lost her home. With the war in Lebanon displacing more than a million people, thousands of children like Fatima face an uncertain future. 

The family, living in a makeshift tent on the pavements of Beirut, said their hometown Kfarkela near the Lebanon-Israel border was the first to come under intense Israeli attack on March 2.

Six months before the village was razed, the child was admitted to a kindergarten. She will never be able to go back, because Israel has already raised its flag over the flattened Kfarkela. 

More than 1100 people have been killed during ongoing Israeli attacks in Lebanon and over 100 of them are children.

Over 1.2 million people have been uprooted from their homes and villages across Lebanon - for a second time in 15 months. UNICEF says 19,000 children, boys and girls, are displaced every day. They are sleeping on pavements in makeshift tents.  And, as Israel appears to be determined to annex South Lebanon, people are unsure whether they will ever see their homes ever again.  

At a refugee camp in Beirut, people are living in sub-human conditions - without sanitation, washing facilities and even food.

Sahira Dawood, a student of Class 9, said: "I am displaced from Khaim... there are no bathrooms, no place to change clothes. Tents are often blown away by wind and rain. We can't eat and drink properly... There is no place to take a shower... We can't pray... we don't have proper clothes".

"It is so difficult to live in such conditions," she said.

Her home has been destroyed. She has no idea if her school still stands. Her last school was destroyed too - in the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in 2023.

Even so, she hopes to return to home as soon as possible. "We used to live a good happy life. but after displacement, it is misery and hardship. my school has also been bombed," she said. 

In Beqqa valley, children appeared happy that they have found shelter inside a school building after their homes came under attack in south Lebanon. 

After Khaim village, the Israel border has become a fierce battleground between Israel and Hezbollah.

Zaher Rhayel fled home with his wife and three children. Now, living in a small room, he is not sure if his family will ever be able to return. 

Israel has officially declared that it will annex the land south of the Litani river and Khaim village. They want to demolish the houses and turn the area into a security buffer zone. 

15-year-old Jawad said during last war in 2023 -2024, his school in Khaim was bombed. He is not sure if the new school where he was admitted exist anymore after fresh Israeli invasion.

"My earlier school was bombed. I have no idea if the present school is there or that too has been bombed," said Jawad.

For lakhs of displaced people in Lebanon, there is literally no help or very little help coming. "No, no one from Hezbollah or the government has reached us with help," Zaher said. 

However, Hezbollah MP Rami Abu Hamdan has claimed that the government, Hezbollah and NGOs are assisting displaced families, refugees in Lebanon are receiving support amid the ongoing crisis.

"The government is helping refugees. We -- along with Hezbollah and Islamic resistance -- are taking care of all of them. Some NGOs are also helping. Above all, the people are helping," said Rami Abu Hamdan.