NEARLY 700,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in Lebanon as Israeli occupation forces continue intensive air strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Bekaa Valley and southern regions of the country, according to the UN children’s agency UNICEF.
The organisation warned on Tuesday that civilians are paying a heavy price for the escalating violence, noting that around 200,000 of the displaced are children and adolescents now living under extremely harsh conditions.
UNICEF’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder, expressed shock at the scale of attacks affecting civilians, saying that ‘children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate.’
The agency stressed that the ongoing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and the severe toll on children are a cause for grave concern.
According to the latest figures released by Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health on Sunday, at least 83 children have been killed among 394 people who have been martyred in Israeli attacks since 2 March, while at least 254 children were among the 1,130 people wounded during the same period.
Lebanese health authorities say the war has so far claimed the lives of more than 500 people, including at least 83 children and 42 women, since the latest confrontation began. The death toll has averaged nearly 100 citizens per day.
Beigbeder said thousands of families who fled the bombardment are now sleeping in overcrowded and cold shelters, describing the figures as stark evidence of the scale of the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Lebanon.
Many displaced residents from Beirut’s southern suburbs have been forced to sleep in Martyrs’ Square and on nearby streets in the Lebanese capital after Israeli evacuation threats pushed residents to abandon their homes.
With the number of displaced people rapidly rising, public facilities across Beirut have been converted into emergency shelters. The Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, the country’s largest sports complex, has become a temporary refuge for hundreds of families.
Inside the stadium, displaced families are living in tents and relying heavily on humanitarian aid such as clothing and winter jackets to cope with the severe cold.
Israeli occupation forces continue to issue evacuation orders for residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs as well as large areas of southern Lebanon and the Bekaa region.
Many Lebanese view the orders as an attempt to forcibly displace civilians, destroy towns and villages, and use the population as leverage in the war, raising fears that the country could face a prolonged humanitarian crisis surpassing those seen in previous conflicts.
UNICEF also reported that over the past 28 months at least 329 children have been killed and 1,632 injured in Lebanon. In the past six days alone, the number of child casualties increased by 25 per cent, bringing the tragic total to 412 children martyred.
The military escalation between Israel and Lebanon continued on Tuesday, as Hezbollah announced a series of rocket and drone attacks targeting Israeli military positions and troops, including a well-planned ambush against a unit of Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in southern Lebanon.
In multiple statements, Hezbollah said its fighters carried out three separate operations against Israeli military sites and troop gatherings, describing the attacks as a response to Israeli airstrikes that have targeted dozens of Lebanese towns, villages and Beirut’s southern suburb.
According to the group, at around 10:00 am on Monday its fighters launched a swarm of loitering drones against the Tsnobar base east of Haifa, roughly 35 kilometres from the Lebanese border, marking the first time the site has been targeted in the current confrontation.
Hezbollah also reported striking a gathering of IOF troops in the al-Khanouq area near the town of Aitaroun using artillery shells. Minutes later, it launched a rocket barrage toward another IOF troop concentration at Kamil Hill on the eastern outskirts of Maroun al-Ras.
In a parallel development, the group said its fighters confronted an attempted advance by IOF units on the southern outskirts of the town of Khiam near the detention facility there. Hezbollah claimed its fighters directly hit two Merkava tanks, one of which was seen burning.
The group added that as Israeli forces attempted to evacuate the damaged tanks, Hezbollah fighters targeted the rescue unit ‘with appropriate weapons’, leading to what it described as intense clashes with the advancing force.
In a later statement, Hezbollah said it lured an Israeli force into a ‘tight ambush’ as it attempted to retrieve casualties from the battlefield in the town of Khiam. During the confrontation, a third Merkava tank was reportedly struck and seen burning.
Hezbollah also announced a wider series of rocket and artillery strikes targeting Israeli military sites and troop gatherings along the Lebanon border front, as well as a military target deep inside Israeli territory.
According to what the group described as its ‘daily operational summary’, Hezbollah carried out 22 military operations after midnight between Monday and Tuesday.
These operations targeted various Israeli positions, including sites inside Lebanese territory and others inside Israel, with a claimed operational range reaching up to 160 kilometres.
The group said 13 attacks were launched inside Israeli territory and nine inside Lebanon.
Targets included five military bases, four cities and settlements, four barracks and military sites, 15 gatherings of troops and vehicles, as well as a factory. The operations also involved at least one direct ground engagement.
Hezbollah said the attacks involved a variety of weapons, including surface-to-surface rockets, precision missiles, artillery shells, guided anti-tank missiles, a surface-to-air missile, and machine guns used in one of the operations.
The group also reported rocket barrages targeting several Israeli towns and settlements in northern Israel, including Kiryat Shmona, Metula, Avivim, Kfar Giladi, Kfar Yuval, Ghajar, Maayan Baruch, Tel Hai, Hagoshrim, Beit Hillel, Margaliot and al-Manara.
Hezbollah said its fighters also targeted the newly established military position on Hamamis Hill south of Khiam with rockets, in addition to attacks on the al-Abbad site and its surroundings, and an IOF troop concentration at the al-Malkiya site opposite Aitaroun.
Other strikes reportedly targeted the Yiftah barracks and the Geva drone command base, as well as an artillery position near al-Marj opposite the Lebanese town of Markaba.
The group also said it shelled another concentration of Israeli troops in the al-Khanouq area of Aitaroun and launched rockets at a separate troop gathering on the eastern outskirts of Maroun al-Ras.
In a further escalation, Hezbollah said it launched two explosive drones at the Tel Hashomer base, which houses a command headquarters of the Israeli army southeast of Tel Aviv and lies about 120 kilometres from the Lebanese border.
Another swarm of drones reportedly struck the Tziporit base east of Haifa, about 35 kilometres from the Lebanese border.
Meanwhile, Mohammad Raad, head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, said in a speech Monday evening that the ‘resistance option’ had become the only way to defend Lebanon as Israeli airstrikes continue.
‘Our objective is clear and defined,’ Raad said. ‘It is to force the enemy out of our occupied land and stop its attacks and violations by air, sea and land.’
He added that there is ‘no other option to preserve dignity, honour and sovereignty except the path of resistance.’
The escalation comes amid a widening regional confrontation after Hezbollah joined Iran following the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on 28 February.
Estimates indicate that Israeli strikes and attacks since then have killed around 400 people and wounded more than 1,160 others in Lebanon, while more than 450,000 people have been displaced.
Two Israeli soldiers have also been killed and others wounded in attacks claimed by Hezbollah.
- Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri received on Tuesday former premiers whom he told that he insisted on the Mechanism Committee as a framework for implementing ceasefire.
Speaker Berri received former PMs Najib Mikati, Fuad Siniora and Tammam Salam in his residence at Ain Al-Tineh.
‘I insist on the Mechanism as a framework for implementing a ceasefire,’ Speaker Berri told the ex-PMs.
For his part, Siniora voiced ‘full support for the efforts undertaken by President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, with the support of Speaker Nabih Berri, with all international authorities and friendly and brotherly countries to stop the Israeli aggression against Lebanon.’
Also on Tuesday, Speaker Berri received US Ambassador to Lebanon, Michel Issa.
The Lebanese Parliament Speaker also met Labour Minister Mohammad Haidar and former deputy speaker Elie Al-Firzli.
The Mechanism Committee (formally the International Monitoring and Implementation Mechanism – IMIM) is a five-member, US-chaired body established in late November 2024 to oversee the ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon.
Composed of the US, France, Lebanon, Israel, and UNIFIL, it monitors the implementation of UN Resolution 1701, including Israeli withdrawals, Hezbollah’s disarmament south of the Litani River, and violations.
However, the Mechanism has been for months silent over Israeli violations of the ceasefire which ended the Israeli aggression on Lebanon between September and November 2024.
Lebanon has been since March 2 (2026) under a brutal Israeli aggression. More than 400 people have been martyred, with nearly 1,000 others being injured in Israeli assaults across south Lebanon, Beirut’s Dahiyeh and Bekaa.