Israel's war on Lebanon 'normalising horror' for children, warns UN

More than 200 children killed in less than two months of all-out war

Ivana Skakye, two, has third-degree burns on 40 per cent of her body after an Israeli air strike on southern Lebanon. AP

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More than 200 children have been killed in Lebanon in less than two months of a war that is "normalising horror", the UN's children agency said on Tuesday, warning of "chilling" similarities with suffering in Gaza.

Israel has launched relentless attacks across the country, including strikes on the capital Beirut that have levelled residential blocks. Entire families have been wiped out by air strikes, often without warning or carried out in the middle of the night, with little time for people to flee their homes.

"The intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable and the appalling is slipping into the realm of the expected," Unicef spokesman James Elder said at a Geneva briefing.

Worrying parallels have emerged for children in Gaza and Lebanon, Mr Elder said, referencing the "grave psychological impacts" of Israeli bombardment.

"The most worrying parallel to Gaza: the escalation of children killed is eliciting no meaningful response from those with influence," he added, saying the cries of children in Lebanon and Gaza are "going unheard".

"For the children of Lebanon, it has become a silent normalisation of horror," Mr Elder said, recounting the incidents of children being killed or injured in the last 10 days alone. Among the latest casualty is Celine Haidar, a youth member of Lebanon's national football team now in a coma after an Israeli missile strike near Beirut.

Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed an average of three children every day for the past two months, according to Unicef, which has issued an urgent appeal for aid as the war continues with no end in sight.

Last month, the agency said Israel's war was affecting nearly every child in the country, leaving them facing an uncertain future of displacement and further violence.

"The world’s silence grows deafening and again we allow the unimaginable to become the landscape of childhood," Mr Elder added on Tuesday. "A horrific and unacceptable new normal."

At least 3,516 people have been killed and about 15,000 wounded in Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 2023, which escalated into a major bombing campaign and ground invasion in September this year.

Efforts to end the war, sparked by cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, have made little progress despite several rounds of diplomatic efforts. US special envoy Amos Hochstein arrived in Beirut on Tuesday to continue discussions, hours after Israel pledged to press on with attacks on Hezbollah even if an agreement is reached.